13 Mo. App. 499 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1883
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action against a common carrier for failing to deliver goods. At the conclusion of all the evidence the court gave a declaration of law that there could be no recovery.
From this, it appears that the liability of the defendant, if it be liable at all, spi’ings from an obligation on its part to give notice to the consignee. If the law put upon the defendant the obligation of giving such notice and it failed through negligence or mistake to do so, then, it may be conceded, it would be liable in this action. Its liability, however, is governed by the law of Illinois. That law was not proved at the trial, and therefore we must presume that it is the same as the law of Missouri. The law of Missouri is, that a railroad company, acting as a common carrier,-is not bound to give notice to the consignee of the arrival of goods, where they arrive within the usual time. Rankin v. Pacific R. Co., 55 Mo. 167; Eaton v. Railroad Co., 12 Mo. App. 386. On the contrary, it is the duty of the consignee, attending to his business and looking after his property as a diligent man should, to inquiré for the goods. It cannot be doubted that if the consignee in this case, when he received the bill of lading, had inquired for the goods at the defendant’s freight office in Chicago, he would have received them. The defendant not being obliged by law to send notice, its undertaking to do so is to be regarded as something which it assumed to do gratuitously, or for. the convenient dispatch of its own business. As it was not bound to do so, it did not incur liability by attempting to do so and failing.