124 N.E. 119 | NY | 1919
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *536 The plaintiff, in virtue of an assignment vesting in him the right, seeks to recover the sum of the invoice price or value of goods destroyed while in the possession of the defendant as a common carrier, to wit, the sum of $17,549.01. The defendant, conceding a liability, asserts that, because of the agreed valuation of the goods and a corresponding limitation, it does not exceed the sum of $5,600. The Appellate Division gave the plaintiff judgment for the latter sum, with interest.
The goods, consisting of fifty-six cases, were delivered, March 10, 1915, at Yokohama, Japan, to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for transportation to New York city, to be there delivered to the shippers' order. A *538 bill of lading was then and there delivered by the company to and accepted by the shippers. It contained the provision: "It is expressly agreed that the goods named in this Bill of Lading are hereby valued at not exceeding $100.00 per package, and unless a different or other value is expressly written and declared herein, the liability of the Companies therefor, in case of the total loss of all or any of the said goods from any cause, shall not exceed $100.00 per package, * * *." It did not express or declare a different value. The goods at San Francisco were by the company delivered to the Southern Pacific Company, as a connecting carrier, which delivered them to the defendant, as a connecting carrier, and were totally destroyed while being transported by the defendant. Their invoice value was $17,549.01. No part of the freight was paid. We are to determine whether or not the liability of the defendant is limited by the agreed valuation.
The Southern Pacific Company, the defendant and the other inland carriers were, of course, subject to the federal act to regulate commerce, and had duly established and filed with the interstate commerce commission certain classifications, tariffs and schedule of rates which were applicable to the transportation from San Francisco to New York city. (Armour Packing Co. v.United States,
The bill of lading delivered by the steamship company was a through bill, issued, manifestly, in arrangement with and in the behalf of the inland connecting carriers. The rate for the inland transportation was stated in it separately from that of the ocean transportation and as one hundred and twenty-five cents per one hundred pounds in minimum carloads of thirty thousand pounds. Such was the rate fixed for the inland transportation by the classifications and schedule of rates and charges established and duly filed by the inland carriers. The bill of lading contained this clause: "In consideration of the rate of freight herein named it is hereby stipulated that the service to be performed hereunder shall be subject to the conditions, whether printed or written, on the face and on the back hereof, and said conditions are hereby agreed to by the shipper and by him accepted for himself *540 and assigns as just and reasonable." The agreed valuation of the goods at one hundred dollars per package and limiting the liability of the companies to a sum not exceeding that valuation was a condition of the bill. The filed classifications and schedule did not contain an agreed valuation, controlling, in form, the shippers' recovery in case the goods were lost, similar to that I have quoted from the bill of lading. No bill of lading other than that delivered to the shippers by the steamship company was issued.
The permissibility of limiting the recovery, in case of liability, to a valuation of the freight agreed upon or declared by the shipper is conclusively established. (Adams Express Co. v. Croninger,
The liability of the defendant is not and, under the Carmack Amendment, could not be questioned. (Boston Maine Railroad v.Hooker,
We are thus brought to the ultimate and determinative question whether or not the facts in the case at bar disclose a relation between the agreed valuation and the rate charged. The bill of lading declared in the parts we have already quoted a relation, that is, in consideration of the rate of freight the valuation is agreed upon as a condition of the transportation. It fulfilled the requirement of the Carmack Amendment that the initial carrier shall issue a bill of lading. It contains agreements of the parties, intended manifestly to bind the connecting *543
carriers, and it and the filed classifications and schedules constitute the entire contract under which the inland or rail transportation is performed. Any provision in it inconsistent with a content of the classifications or schedules is void. It is not now open to discussion that the duly established and filed rates are absolutely binding upon all persons who are parties to a contract of interstate transportation. They have the force of a statute. They cannot be varied under any pretext. No party can lawfully depart from them. (Louisville Nashvill Railroad v.Maxwell,
We find nothing relevant to this phase of the problem in the case of Reid v. Fargo (213 Fed. Rep. 771;
The judgment should be reversed and judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for the sum of seventeen thousand, five hundred and forty-nine dollars and one cent, with interest from March 10, 1915, with costs in this court and in the Appellate Division.
CHASE, CUDDEBACK, McLAUGHLIN and ANDREWS, JJ., concur; HOGAN, J., dissents; CRANE, J., not sitting.
Judgment accordingly. *546