189 Iowa 1284 | Iowa | 1920
Tlie cause ivas submitted on an agreed statement of fact. Therefrom it appears that plaintiff delivered to defendant company, June 18, 1917, at Oskaloosa, for transportation to Egbert & Case,, New York-City, New York, 119 cases of eggs, each case containing 30 dozen.. After the eggs had left Oskaloosa, and were in course of transportation, plaintiff’s agent “called upon the defendant’s agent in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and advised the defendant’s agent that plaintiff desired to divert said shipment or car, and- informed such agent for the defendant at that'time that the egg market was off in New York, and that plaintiff wanted the car consigned to itself in Chicago, Illinois, for short-held storage.” Thereupon, plaintiff surrendered the bill of lading previously issued, and received from, defendant another bill of lading, with plaintiff as consignee, and the destination Chicago, Illinois. Through mistake, for which defendant is responsible,, the shipment ivas not stopped at Chicago, but went on to New York City, and the eggs were delivered to Egbert & Case. This firm sold the eggs, June 21, 1917, at 31 cents per dozen, or in the aggregate for $1,106.70, and remitted the same, less freight, cartage, etc., in the sum of $72.88, leaving $1,033.82 as the net proceeds. The shipment reached Chicago June 15, 1917,. and on that day the market price of eggs was 29% cents per dozen. As their weight was 6,307 pounds, and the freight rate on the same from Oskaloosa to Chicago was 46 cents a hundred pounds, as compared with $1.0999 per hundred pounds to New York City, plaintiff would have realized no more for them on the Chicago market than he received from New York City. The eggs cost the plaintiff, on the day of shipment, 33 5/6 cents per dozen, or $1,207.85. The plain-tiff, in changing the destination, intended to place the eggs “in short-held storage” at Chicago, the same being a common and usual trade practice with merc.ha.ntR engaged.in buying and selling eggs upon the market, as was-the plaintiff. If he had done so, and so kept them for five weeks, he might have sold them at 36 cents a dozen, and have received for the entire consignment the sum of $1,285.20, and would
The court seems to have entertained the opinion that, inasmuch as defendant “had defeated the purpose and' intention of the shipper, and deprived him of a right which was within the contemplation of both parties, to wit, to store the eggs in Chicago for a reasonable time, to see if the market would react, so that he could sell them for a profit,” plaintiff should be allowed, as an element of damages, the profit it would have realized, had the eggs been delivered to the consignee in Chicago and stored five weeks, and then sold on the market. The defendant had notice that plaintiff intended to put the eggs in “short-held stor
Judgment should have been entered for defendant.— Reversed.