138 N.Y.S. 287 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1912
Lead Opinion
This action was brought to recover the value of a handbag and contents which the plaintiff, on the afternoon of November 4, 1911, checked at the parcel room of the defendant at its station in the city of Albany, receiving therefor a duplicate cardboard coupon, two by three inches in size, upon the face of which was printed:
“ New York New York Central & Hudson Eiver
Central Railroad Company.
Lines Duplicate Coupon.
“ N. B. See Conditions on back.
“ Albany.
‘‘ Received........................................
“ Delivered.......................................
“251 73815 Series A”
Upon the back of the coupon was printed:
“ New York Central & Hud. Riv. R. R. Co.
“ Duplicate Coupon.
“ To claim Parcel, this Coupon must be presented at Parcel
Room.
“Albany
“ between the hours during which the room is open for business.
“ Charges 10 cents for first 24 hours, and 5 cents for each additional 24 hours, or fraction thereof, on each piece of handbag, parcel, etc. Class, China, etc., taken only at owner’s risk of breakage. The depositor in accepting this duplicate Coupon expressly agrees that the Company shall not be hable to him or her for any loss or damage of any piece to an amount exceeding Ten Dollars.
“W. M. SKINNER.
“ General Baggage Agent”
Plainly the relation between the parties was that of bailor and bailee for hire,, but the parties differ somewhat as to the nature of the bailment. The handbag Was not checked for transportation oyer defendant’s road, but simply for safekeeping, and to be redelivered to plaintiff at the place of deposit upon presentation of the coupon. The plaintiff had that afternoon come from his home in Schenectady by a street railroad line which was neither owned nor operated by defendant, and so far as appears from the record the plaintiff did not contemplate becoming a passenger upon defendant’s railroad. The rules, therefore, relative to the liability of a common carrier were not applicable. The defendant contends that in its relations with the- plaintiff it was acting in the capacity of warehouseman, and that its liability is that of warehouseman only. Section 142 of the General Business Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 20; Laws of 1909, chap. 25) defines a warehouseman as a person lawfully engaged in the business •of storing goods for profit: Defendant claims the right to limit its liability under the provisions of section 91 of the General Business Law which specifies the form of warehouse receipts, and provides that a warehouseman may insert in a receipt issued by him any terms and conditions' not contrary to the provisions of such law and which shall not itt any way impair his obligation to exercise
Assuming, as the defendant claims, that the coupon complied with the requirements of section 91 as to a receipt except as to the date of issue, which was left blank, yet I think that the clause of the coupon which attempted to limit the liability of the defendant impaired its obligation to exercise that degree of care in the safekeeping of the goods intrusted to it which a reasonably careful man would exercise in regard to similar goods of his own, and hence was a condition which the defendant had not the legal right to insert in the coupon and was void. It is a matter of common knowledge that the value of a handbag and its contents carried by a person traveling is often many times ten dollars, and manifestly a condition in a receipt which limits the liability of the bailee to so small a sum weakens his sense of obligation to exercise that degree of care which he would be likely to exercise if he knew that he would be held liable for the full value of the parcel stored in the event of its loss.
However, I think that the decision of this appeal should be placed upon the broader ground that under the circumstances disclosed by the record the unreasonable condition printed upon the coupon attempting to limit the liability of the defendant to not exceeding ten dollars was void. Had notice been given by the bailee to the bailor of the condition limiting the liability of the former, and the latter then seen fit to enter into the bailment, a different question would be presented. But in the case at bar no notice whatever was given to the bailor of the existence of this condition, neither was there anything connected with the transaction, which was for the mutual benefit of both parties, which would tend in any way to suggest to a reasonably prudent man or lead him to suspect the existence of such a special contract, or tend to put him on guard or on inquiry relative thereto.
The coupon was presumptively intended as between the parties to serve the special purpose of affording a means of identifying the parcel left by the bailor. In the mind of the bailor the little piece of cardboard which was undoubtedly
The- plaintiff having had no knowledge of the existence of the special contract limiting the liability of the defendant to an amount not exceeding ten dollars, and not being chargeable with such knowledge, the minds of the parties never met thereon, and the plaintiff cannot be deemed to have assented thereto and is not bound thereby.
. The judgment entered upon the decision of the County Court awarding to the plaintiff the full value of the handbag and contents together with the costs of the action should be affirmed, with costs of this appeal to the respondent.
All concurred, Houghton, J., in memorandum.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in an affirmance of this judgment, but I do not agree that the Warehouse Law as contained in the General Business Law has anything to do with the question, or .that it in any way limits or imposes a liability upon the defendant. It is perfectly apparent from the whole scheme of the statute relating to warehousemen that it seeks to regulate only those persons or corporations who store merchandise which is to be resold or goods which are to remain some considerable time in storage. This is evidenced by the fact that receipts are directed to be given by such warehousemen stating particulars regarding the property deposited. Such receipts are negotiable unless otherwise stipulated, and by the law merchant title to the property passes by a mere transfer of the receipt itself. Such business is a large and important one requiring careful regulation. It seems to me furtherest from the intention of the Legislature to apply such a law to a parcel room rim in connection with a railroad station or a check room
Confessedly the check which was issued to the plaintiff did not purport in the slightest way to conform to the provisions of section 91 of the General Business Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 20; Laws of 1909, chap. 25) specifying the form of a warehouse receipt, and it seems to me quite illogical to measure the defendant’s liability by the concluding paragraph of that section. In addition, if the check which was issued to the plaintiff is to be deemed a warehouseman’s receipt, I do not think the limiting of the valuation of the property deposited was a contract impairing the obligation to exercise due care. Whatever else may have been printed on the hack of the check there does not appear to be anything exonerating the defendant from liability if it should not exercise due care with respect to the goods. In fact, the defendant concedes that it did not exercise due care or such care as a reasonably careful man would exercise in regard to similar goods of his own, because it delivered the hag to-somebody else and mixed up the checks, and, therefore, confessedly was guilty of negligence and lack of care. The defendant confesses that because of its negligence it is liable to pay a certain sunq and asserts that that sum is the amount of ten dollars, which the plaintiff agreed to accept in case due care was not exercised.
The only question for us to pass upon is, therefore, whether there was any contract limiting the valuation of the goods to ten dollars. If there was, then the plaintiff must be contented with a judgment for that amount. If there was not, then he can recover the value of his goods which he deposited and which the defendant failed to deliver to him: -
The plaintiff had not arrived in Albany by the defendant’s road but he was an intending passenger. It was stipulated on the trial that he deposited his bag temporarily, expecting to take a train for Montreal at a later hour. Still I do not think the defendant in taking the plaintiff’s bag at its parcel room was engaged in the business of a common carrier or that its liability is to be measured as such. In that business it was a simple bailee. If it he assumed, however, that the storing of baggage of passengers in a parcel room was a part of defend
In Tewes v. North German Lloyd S. S. Co. (186 N. Y. 151) the decision in Westcott v. Fargo (supra) is distinctly stated to have been overruled, and the later express company decisions make the shipping contract given by express companies to the shipper binding upon the shipper whether he reads it or not because he is bound to make himself acquainted with its provisions: (Knapp v. Wells, Fargo & Co., 134 App. Div. 712.)
In Rawson v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co. (48 N. Y. 212) it
In Mills v. Weir (82 App. Div. 396, 398), which held that a shipper was bound to read the receipt given him by the express company and was bound thereby, Bartlett, J., points out the difference between such a receipt and one given by a baggage transfer company, and says: “The cases of Blossom v. Dodd (43 N. Y. 264), Madan v. Sherard (73 id. 329) and Springer v. Westcott (166 id. 117) decide nothing in conflict with the views which I have expressed in reference to the effect of the acceptance of the receipt in the case at bar. In the Blossom case the paper was given to the plaintiff in exchange for his baggage checks in a train late at night, was illegible in the existing light, was unsigned in fact, and had no appearance of being a contract. As was said of these facts in Kirkland v. Dinsmore (supra): ‘ The circumstances in that case repelled the idea of a contract. The plaintiff received the card or ticket under circumstances indicating to him that it was given merely for his convenience and protection to enable him to identify the baggage on delivery, and that he might know in whose possession it was.’ In the Madan case the circumstances under which the receipt was given were very similar. In the Springer case the receipt was handed to the passenger folded up, and the express messenger did not tell her nor did she know what it contained. All three cases related to papers given in exchange for baggage checks to travelers in railway trains, and they go no further than to decide that the contents of such papers cannot be deemed binding upon the traveler unless delivered to him under such circumstances as to constitute notice of their character. The distinction has often been pointed out between these baggage express cases and the shipment of articles by an ordinary express company, whose agreement of transportation is rarely
The same line of reasoning is followed in Morgan v. Woolverton (supra). In Grossman v. Dodd (supra) it was held that the burden rested upon the bailor attempting to limit his liability by contract to show that the bailee assented to the terms of the receipt.
It, therefore, was entirely competent for the defendant even to contract against its own negligence or to contract for a limited liability. But in order to relieve itself from liability beyond the stipulated sum of ten dollars the defendant must show that the bailor actually or impliedly agreed to the contract, which in the present case it failed to do.
The business of checking hand baggage at railway stations has become a large and important one. It seems to me that any one in the ordinary' course of business, checking his baggage at such a place would regard the check received as a mere token to enable him to identify his baggage when called for, and that in no sense would he have any reason to believe that it embodied a contract, exempting the bailee from liability or limiting the amount thereof. If the plaintiff knew that the defendant had limited its liability to ten dollars, either by his attention being called to it or otherwise, then, of course, the law would deem him to have assented to it so that a binding contract would be effected. If he did not know it, I think the law imposed no duty upon him, to read his check to find whether or not there was a contract printed thereon, or that he was guilty of neglect in not so reading it for he had no reason to apprehend that a contract was printed thereon.
On this ground I think the plaintiff was entitled to recover the full value of his bag and its contents irrespective of the Warehouse Law, and it is upon this ground alone that I assent to an affirmance of the judgment.
Judgment unanimously affirmed, with costs.