126 So. 846 | Ala. | 1930
Appellant sued appellee to recover an undercharge on a shipment of alfalfa from a station in Nebraska to Bear Creek in this state. Jury and verdict for defendant.
Authoritative decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States, interpreting and applying the federal act to regulate interstate commerce, make it entirely clear that, apart from the question of set-off to be hereafter noticed, plaintiff was entitled to judgment on the undisputed evidence. Illinois Central R. *542
Co. v. Henderson Elevator Co.,
We are led to believe that defendant appellee prevailed in the trial court on his plea of set-off to the following effect: That he was by his contract with the shipper bound to pay for the alfalfa on its arrival at Bear Creek a specified sum, which included the freight charge to be paid by him; that plaintiff's agent at Bear Creek informed him as to the amount of the freight charge, whereupon and in reliance upon such information he paid the shipper's draft, held for collection by the bank at Bear Creek, less the freight charge according to the information furnished by plaintiff's agent, which was $68.04 less than the charge fixed by law — i. e., the order of the Interstate Commerce Commission — with result that he paid $68.04 more to the bank for the shipper than he was required to pay by his contract for purchase, which amount he offered to set off against the like amount claimed by the plaintiff in this suit. In principle this set off was allowed in its statement of the relevant law by the court and in effect by the jury.
The plea of set-off had no better standing in a court of law than had the plea denying liability in the first place. According to the decisions of the federal court, which has paramount and indisputable authority in the matter of such questions, defendant must be conclusively presumed to have known the lawful rate and had no right to bargain for or accept a different rate. This rule the court upholds on grounds of public policy and in order to make effective the legislative prescription of rebates and contracts for special favors at the hands of common carriers. The rule works harshly in appellee's case, but so it is written. Authorities supra; Schenberger v. Union Pacific R. Co.,
The judgment is reversed.
Reversed and remanded.
ANDERSON, C. J., and THOMAS and BROWN, JJ., concur.