13 Ga. App. 102 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1913
The plaintiff made a through contract of affreightment with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company to transport a car of live stock from a station in the State of Illinois to Thomasville, Georgia, over the line of the,contracting company and its connecting carriers. The last carrier was the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, which delivered the stock at destination. One of the horses in the shipment was bruised and injured, as a result of which it died, and the plaintiff brought suit against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, as the last’ connecting carrier which received the live stock as “in good order.” The petition alleged, that the injury and subsequent death of the horse was due to the careless and negligent handling of the car by the defendant company; that when the car left the initial point of ship
Subsequently to the decision of this court in Southern Pacific Company v. Crenshaw, supra, the case of Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491 (33 Supreme Ct. 148), was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. In that decision the court took occasion to approve the following language of this court in the Crenshaw case, in which this court undertook to set forth some of the reasons which brought about the passage of the national law and made it paramount. “Some States allowed carriers to exempt themselves from all or a part of the common-law liability, by rule, regulation, or contract; others did not; the Federal courts sitting in the various States were following the local rule, a carrier being held liable in one court when under the same state of facts he would be exempt from liability in another; hence, this branch of interstate commerce was being subjected to such a diversity of legislative and judicial holding that it was practically
The precise ruling made in Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, supra, was that while, under the provisions of the act of Congress, the carrier could not exempt himself from negligence, he might, by a fair and reasonable exemption, limit the amount recoverable by the shipper to an agreed valuation made for the purpose of obtaining a reduced rate of freight. In discussing generally in that case the subject of- the effect of the act of Congress, Mr. Justice Lurton, who delivered the opinion of the court, used the following language: “That the legislation supersedes all the regulations and policies of a particular State upon the same subject results from its general character. It embraces the subject of the liability of the carrier under a bill of lading which he must issue, and limits his power to exempt himself by rule, regulation or contract. Almost every detail of the subject is covered so completely that there can be no rational doubt but that Congress intended to take possession of the subject and supersede all State regulation with reference to it. Only the silence of Congress authorized the exercise of the police power of the State upon the subject of such contracts. But when Congress acted in such a way as to manifest a purpose to exercise its conceded authority, the regulating power of the State ceased to exist. Northern Pacific Ry. v. State of Washington, 222 U. S. 370 [32 Sup. Ct. 160, 56 L. ed. 237]; Southern Railway v. Reid, 222 U. S. 424 [32 Sup. Ct. 140, 56 L. ed. 257]; Mondou v. Railroad, 223 U. S. 1 [32 Sup. Ct. 169, 56 L. ed. 327, 38 L. R. A. (N. S.) 44]. To hold that the liability therein declared may be increased or diminished by local regulation or local views of public
The question in the present case is, whether the act of Congress, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States, so far supersedes all State legislation as to prohibit a shipper, who has been injured by loss of or damage to goods carried in- interstate commerce, from proceeding directly against one of the connecting carriers which either actually or presumptively received the gopds as “in good order.” Indeed, the act itself contains a provision that nothing in it “shall deprive any holder of such receipt or bill of lading of any remedy or right of action which he has under existing law.” Here is an express declaration by Congress, preserving to the shipper all remedies existing under State laws; and this, of course, must mean all remedies which are not in conflict with that prescribed by the national act. -The act purports to regulate the carriage of goods in interstate commerce and to fix the liability of the carrier in case of loss of or damage to the goods, but it does not interfere with or abrogate any remedy which the shipper has under State law. Section 2752 of our Civil Code, authorizing suit against the last carrier receiving goods “as in good order,” is not, as applied to shipments from beyond the State, a regulation of interstate commerce, so as to be repugnant to the commerce clause of the constitution of the United States. Kavanaugh v. Southern Ry. Co., 120 Ga. 62 (47 S. E. 526, 1 Ann. Cas. 705). The statute is designed merely to make it more certain that railroad companies will perform the duty, resting upon them as public carriers, to use the utmost care and diligence in the transportation of goods. There is no provision in the act of Congress-that suit against the initial carrier shall be the exclusive remedy for the injured shipper; there is nothing in that act that either expressly or by necessary implication would prohibit the shipper