47 Mo. App. 570 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1892
This is an action ex delicto for an alleged failure on the part of the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis Railroad Company to transport and deliver, as it agreed and. undertook to do, a lot of household goods of the alleged value of $1,800. It was averred in the petition that said railroad company received the goods at Willow Springs, a station on the line •of its road in Howell county, Missouri,' and contracted for a consideration then paid to ship them to Hico, Texas, and there to deliver them. to the plaintiff .as owner and consignee. The suit was originally instituted against the company named, but, during the pendency of the action and before the trial, the Then defendant company consolidated with the-Kansas
A recovery under the plaintiff’s petition and theory of the case required of him proof of a through contract of shipment from Willow Springs to Hico, Texas, and the failure to deliver the goods at the point of destination. In the answer, the receipt of the goods by the station agent at Willow Springs is admitted, and from this admission the law will only imply a contract of carriage to the end of the receiving company’s road; and, if further transportation was necessary, that the
In view of a retrial of the case we think it expedient to suggest that the plaintiff’s own testimony, as ¡to the contents of the box (which was the only testimony on that point), is not very satisfactory. It is difficult to understand how he possessed any personal knowledge of, or could testify as to the identity of, the .goods that were shipped, as we gather the idea that he •was in Texas when the shipment was made. It would
We also encounter another difficulty to which we think it proper to call attention. If the plaintiff relies on the written contract which was read in evidence by him as an undertaking by the railroad company to transport the goods to Hico, Texas, it will be necessary ■on a retrial to introduce some evidence tending to prove that the station agent at Willow Springs had authority,, -either express or implied, to bind the railroad company in such an undertaking. Grover, etc., Sewing Machine Co. v. Railroad, 70 Mo. 678; White v. Railroad, 19 Mo. App. 410; Turner v. Railroad, 20 Mo. App. 632; Orr v. Railroad, 21 Mo. App. 336. We make this suggestion on the assumption that Hico, Texas, is beyond the terminus of the defendant’s line of road. Prima facie a station agent can only bind his company in contracts of carriage to the end of its road.
It is not necessary for us to notice the argument in the appellant’s brief in respect of the application of •section 598, Revised Statutes of 1879, to the contract in question. That section is only applicable to through contracts of shipment; that is, shipments beyond the ■end of the carrier’s line. We find no evidence in the present record showing that the contract in question, if it can be construed to be a through contract to Hico, Texas, was entered into by a duly authorized agent of the railroad company. In the absence of such evidence, ■such contract, as a through contract of shipment, would not bind the railroad company.
With the concurrence of the other judges the judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded. It will be so ordered.