143 N.Y.S. 983 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
Lead Opinion
The plaintiff on September 15, 1911, purchased at Gardner, Mass., a first class passenger ticket to New York city via the Boston and Marne Railroad Company and the defendant, for which she paid $4.78. In determining the rate the railroad companies, among other things, based the same upon the cost of transporting the passenger, together with the cost of transporting 150 pounds of personal effects of a value not exceeding
Plaintiff’s attention was not called to said provisions on the ticket or the check. She did not read them and was not aware of them. The trunk and its contents, consisting of personal baggage, were of the value of $1,300, and their nature and amount were proper and reasonable with reference to plaintiff’s station in life and the purpose of her journey. She did not declare and stipulate at the time her baggage was checked that it exceeded $100 in value, nor did she pay any charges for valuation in excess of $100; nor did the Boston and Maine Bailroad Company, or any one in its behalf, make any inquiry as to the value of plaintiff’s baggage, nor inform her that it was material or necessary to state such value.
The defendant received the plaintiff and her baggage at Springfield, Mass., as a connecting carrier in interstate commerce and on the ticket aforesaid transported her and her baggage to the Grand Central Terminal in New York city. Upon the day after her arrival she. presented said check to the defendant and demanded her trunk, “but the defendant failed to deliver said baggage to her, and has never delivered it to her, nor accounted to her for such failure to deliver it, nor
At the time plaintiff purchased her ticket there existed an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission dated the 2d day of June, 1908, requiring carriers to keep on file in their stations rates and schedules of fares. The Boston and Main Railroad Company had fully complied with the requirements of said order and had printed, published, posted, kept open for public inspection, and had filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, in compliance with the provisions of the act of Congress relating to interstate commerce and the amendments thereof, and the orders and regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission, all the rates, fares and charges for transportation between different points and also all the rules and regulations which in anywise change, affect or determine'any part of the aggregate of such rates, fares and charges or the value of the services rendered to the passenger, including the rates, fares and charges and the aforesaid rules and regulations between Gardner, Mass., and New York City, N. Y., via the defendant company, which rates were operative and in full force during September, 1911; and it had placed in the custody of its agent at Gardner, Mass., all the rate and fare schedules applying from said station, and said agent was instructed and required to give, and, whenever inquired of, gave information contained in said schedules and lent assistance to seekers for information therefrom, and gave and accorded any and all inquirers opportunity to examine any of said schedules. There was posted in two conspicuous places in the station near the ticket office a printed placard in large black-faced type, “Boston & Maine R. R. Complete public files of this Company’s freight and passenger tariffs are located at the offices of the General Freight Agent and General Passenger Agent, North Station, in the City of Boston, Mass., and at the station freight and Union Station ticket offices respectively, in the cities of Worcester, Mass., and Portland, Me. The rate and fare schedules applying from or at this station and indices of this Company’s tariffs are on file in this office and may be inspected by any person upon application, and without the assignment
In the said tariff schedules so filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and on file in the station is the following: “Baggage Rules. One hundred and fifty pounds of personal baggage, not exceeding $100 in value, will be checked free for each passenger on presentation of a full ticket, and Seventy-five Pounds for a half ticket. Baggage Liability is limited to personal baggage not to exceed one hundred (100) dollars in value for a passenger presenting a full ticket, and fifty (50) dollars in value for a half ticket, unless a greater value is declared and stipulated by the ownér and excess charges thereon paid at time of checking the baggage. Excess Valuation.— For excess value the rate will be one-half of the current excess baggage rate per 100 lbs. for each one hundred (100) dollars or fraction thereof of increased value declared. The minimum charge for excess value will be 25 cents. ” And there was posted in a conspicuous place in the baggage room of the station where the baggage was checked a notice: “ Boston & Maine R. R.” In large black-faced type: “Excess Baggage Rates in effect July 1, 1908¡” containing the provisions just quoted from the tariff as to excess weight and excess valuation, and also the rate upon excess baggage per 100 pounds to be calculated upon the various rates of ticket fare. The excess rate for the valuation of $1,300 was $4.80. The plaintiff’s attention was not called to the schedules or notices and she did not know that the defendant’s charges were based on the value of the baggage or in any way affected by the value of the baggage.
Upon the foregoing facts the plaintiff demands judgment for $1,300 with interest from September 16, 1911, with costs, and the defendant demands judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s action, with costs, except as to $100, with interest from the same date.
The original Interstate Commerce Act of February 4, 1887, was amended by the act of June 29, 1906, which took effect sixty days thereafter. (24 U. S. Stat. at Large, 379, chap. 104, as amd. by 34 id. 584, chap. 3591; 34 id. 838, Res. No. 47.) The
Adams Express Co. v. Croninger (226 U. S. 491) reviewed a judgment of the Circuit Court, Kenton county, Ky., against a carrier for the full value of an undelivered interstate shipment, notwithstanding a stipulation limiting the carrier’s liability to the agreed value. The receipt or bill of lading issued showed no value but contained a stipulation limiting the liability to fifty dollars if no value was stated therein. Lurton, J.: “The answer relies upon the act of Congress of June 29, 1906, * * * as the only regulation applicable to an interstate shipment; and avers that the limitation of value, declared in its bill of lading, was valid and obligatory under that act. * * * Under the law of Kentucky this contract, limiting the plaintiff’s recovery to the agreed or declared value, was invalid, and the shipper was entitled to recover the actual value, ‘unless,’ as said in Adams Express Company v. Walker (119 Kentucky, 121), * * * ‘ sufficient facts are shown,
“ That no inquiry was made as to the actual value is not vital to the fairness of the agreement in this case. The receipt which was accepted showed that the charge made was based upon a valuation of fifty dollars unless a greater value should be stated therein. The knowledge of the shipper that the rate was based upon the value is to be presumed from the terms of the bill of lading and of the published schedules filed with the Commission. * * * That a common carrier cannot exempt himself from liability for his own negligence or that of his servants is elementary. * * * But the rigor of this liability might be modified through any fair, reasonable and just agreement with the shipper which did not include exemption against the negligence of the carrier or his servants. . The inherent right to receive a compensation commensurate with the risk involved the right to protect himself from fraud and imposition by reasonable rules and regulations, and the right to agree upon a rate proportionate to the value of the property transported. It has therefore become an established rule of the common law, as declared by this court in many cases, that
Kansas Southern Ry. v. Carl (227 U. S. 639) was error to the Supreme Court of Arkansas to review a judgment affirming a judgment from the Circuit Court affirming a justice’s judgment for the value of an undelivered interstate shipment, notwithstanding a stipulation limiting the carrier’s liability. The defendant in error testified, over objection, that though he could read and write, and had signed the release set out, and had received the bill of lading, he had neither read them nor asked any questions about them, and had not been given any information as to the contents of either document, and had no knowledge of the existence of the two rates. He was also allowed to testify that if he had known of the difference between the two rates and the effect of accepting the lower he would have paid the higher rate. There was no evidence tending to show any misrepresentation made by the company or of any deceit, fraud or concealment, unless it be inferred from the fact that the company made no explanation of the rates or of the contents of either the bill of lading or release. The shipper merely said that the bill of lading was handed to him with the release, which he was asked to sign. Lurton, J.: * * In the leading case of Hart v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 112 U. S. 331, the right of the carrier to adjust the rate to the valuation which the shipper places upon the thing to be transported is the very basis upon which a limitation of liability in case of loss or damage is rested. This is an administrative principle in rate-making recognized as reasonable by
Wells, Fargo & Co. v. Neiman-Marcus Co. (227 U. S. 469) was in error to the Court of Civil Appeals from the fifth supreme judicial district of the State of Texas, to review a judgment against a carrier for the full value of an undelivered interstate shipment, notwithstanding the stipulation limiting the carrier’s liability to a declared value. It was proved in that case that the consignors kept in then* shipping office an express book containing blank express receipts. One of these was filled out in their office by their shipping clerk. When the wagon of the express company called at the shipping office the agent signed the receipt and the package was delivered to him by a boy assistant to the shipping clerk. No questions were asked as to the value and no value declared other than as shown in the receipt. It was also shown that the clerk who wrapped and marked the package did not know
By the act of June 18, 1910, which, so far as material, took effect sixty days thereafter (36 U. S. Stat. at Large, 539, chap. 309), the Interstate Commerce Act was amended. Section 1 of the act, so far as material, now reads as follows: “It is hereby made the duty of all common-carriers subject to the provisions of this Act to establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable classifications of property for transportation, with reference to which rates, tariffs, regulations, or practices are or may be made or prescribed, and just and reasonable regulations and practices affecting classifications, rates, or tariffs, the issuance, form, and substance of tickets, receipts, and bills of lading, * * * the facilities for transportation, the carrying of personal, sample, and excess baggage, and all other matters relating to or connected with the receiving, handling, transporting, storing, and delivery of property subject to the provisions of this Act.” (24 U. S. Stat. at Large, 379, § 1; as amd. by 36 id. 544, 546, § 7.)
In Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Co. v. Hailey (156 S. W. Rep. 1119) the facts are similar to the case at bar. The plaintiff purchased a ticket in Oklahoma City, Okla., to Dallas, Tex., and upon the ticket checked his trunk and received a check indorsed on which was a clause limiting liability to $100 unless a greater value was declared. The trunk was not delivered to plaintiff at destination. Defendant pleaded the baggage rules and regulations filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and published according to law, containing a limitation clause similar to the one involved in this case. The special defense was demurred to and sustained. The appellate coxirt in its opinion reversing the court below said: “Under the law of this State it is well settled that common carriers cannot by inserting such conditions in its bills of lading, receipts, etc., limit the shipper in case of loss, damage or destruction, to values therein ‘agreed’ on or ‘declared,’ but must pay the actual value or the market value as may be determined by the rule of the State as applied to the article lost, damaged or destroyed.” It then cites the late cases in the Supreme Court of the United States and says, referring to the
The plaintiff cites and relies upon Hooker v. Boston & Maine R. R. (209 Mass. 598); Wells v. Great Northern Ry. Co. (59 Oreg. 165; 116 Pac. Rep. 1070), and Homer v. Oregon Short Line R. Co. (a Utah case, 128 id. 522). These cases were all decided prior to the recent decisions in the Supreme Court of the United States beginning with the Croninger case, which hold that interstate rates and contracts with respect to liability are exclusively within the control of Congress and supersede policies and rules of the. States upon such subjects. The Hooker Case (supra) admitted that the public are held to knowledge of the tariff schedules filed and published, regardless of actual knowledge or assent. It denied that the carriers were obligated to include in their schedules regulations such as those in
The Wells and Homer cases each followed the local policies of their respective States, which is, that a carrier cannot make a valid contract limiting its liability for its negligence. In the opinion in the Homer case, however, it was recognized that the question might ultimately be determined by the Federal tribunals, and the court said: “When they have spoken we will conform our rulings.” The Supreme Court of the United States has now spoken and so the State courts must abandon their local policies and conform to that announced by Federal authority.
It seems useless, in view of the cases cited, to review our own State authorities. The case presented being admittedly one of interstate commerce, upon the authorities cited and the submission at bar, judgment is directed for the plaintiff for $100, with interest from September 16, 1911. This being in substance a judgment for the defendant under the submission, the defendant is entitled to costs.
Ingraham, P. J., McLaughlin and Laughlin, JJ., concurred; Scott, J., dissented.
227 U. S. 639.— [Rep.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent, and am in favor of a judgment in favor of plaintiff. The question involved is not one of a conflict between State regulation and Federal regulation of interstate commerce, but the old question so often discussed in the so-called “ baggage cases,” whether the mere acceptance of a ticket or a baggage check on which is printed a limitation clause amounts to a declaration by the passenger that her baggage is of no greater value than the amount of the limit of the carrier’s liability. The Croninger case, and others cited by my brother Clarke, are all “ Merchandise ” cases in which the court found a declaration by the shippers as to the value of the shipment, and an acceptance of a contract for shipment knowing that it contained a limitation of liability clause. These cases have always
This concession distinctly negatives any idea that plaintiff agreed to the limitation of liability, or made any representation as to the value thereof. The element of estoppel, therefore, so strongly dwelt upon in Hart v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co. (112 U. S. 331), is entirely absent from the case. In the Croninger case the decision was based, in part at least, upon the statement embodied in the opinion that “ The knowledge of the shipper that the rate was based upon the value is to be presumed from the terms of the bill of lading and of the published schedules filed with the Commission.”
The court evidently referred to the presumption as one of fact. In the present case it is expressly stipulated that the passenger had no such knowledge — there is, therefore, no room for any presumption upon the subject. If it had been the law of this State prior to the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act and the Carmack Amendment to the Hepburn Bill, which amended said act, that a carrier might not by any agreement limit his liability, there would be no doubt that the State law would have been superseded as to interstate commerce by the Federal law. But there was not any such law in this State, and the plaintiff does not rely upon any such law. It has been the law here, and the Supreme Court of the United States says is now the law of the land under the Interstate Commerce Act, that “It has * * * become an established rule of the common law, as declared by this court in many
Under this rule the question still remains since the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act, as it did before, whether, in the case of a shipment of baggage under the circumstances agreed to in the submission, there has been any agreement as to a limitation of liability, or any representation by the passenger, express or implied, as to the value of the baggage. It may even be conceded that the plaintiff and defendant could not lawfully agree to carry the baggage at a lower rate than that specified in the filed schedules, but the only point of my dissent is that there was no agreement at all. With full recognition of the paramount authority of Congress to regulate respecting interstate commerce, and with a sincere desire to give full effect to its enactments, I can find nothing in the Federal statutes or in the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States to change the long-established rule that, in the absence of an agreement between the carrier and passenger as to a limitation of liability based upon value, or a representation by the passenger as to the value of his baggage, or a knowledge on his part that the price of a ticket is based upon the value of the baggage carried, the carrier is hable for the actual value if the baggage is lost by its negligence or fault. All that has been decided is that when Congress, by the Interstate Commerce Act, authorized contracts for the limitation of the liability of common carriers its enactment superseded and abrogated, as to interstate shipments, the provisions of any State law undertaking to forbid such contracts. That, in my opinion, does not touch the real question in this case.
Judgment directed for plaintiff for $100, with interest, but with costs to defendant. Order to be settled on notice.