186 Iowa 418 | Iowa | 1919
The Denby Motor Truck Company, doing business in Michigan, consigned one motor truck to its own order to Knoxville, Iowa, and delivered it to the Grand Trunk Railway Company, a common carrier, for transportation to Knoxville. For this shipment the truck company took from the carrier a receipt and bill of lading, stating its own name as consignee, and marked, “Notify S. L. Collins Oil Company, Knoxville, Iowa.” It also provided in terms that the surrender of the original bill of lading, properly endorsed, should be a condition precedent to the delivery of the shipment by the carrier, and that inspection of the
At the close of the plaintiff’s testimony, and again when both parties had rested, defendant moved for a directed verdict in its favor. The grounds assigned for the motion are:
(1) Insufficient evidence to sustain a recovery. . '
(2) That, under the law applicable to the case, the oil company was the consignee in fact, and was-entitled to de
(3) That plaintiff had failed to prove the value of the truck described in the bill of lading.
The motion having been denied, defendant offered to prove, by competent testimony, that the value of the truck represented by the bill of lading at the time the bill was surrendered to Collins, did not exceed $600; and, the offer being overruled, defendant rested, without tender or offer of other evidence. Plaintiff’s motion for a directed verdict in its favor was thereupon sustained, and from the judgment thereupon, defendant appealed.
In argument to this court, the appellant relies on the single proposition that the measure of plaintiff’s damages, if any, is the actual value of the truck described in the bill of lading, and that, if there be no evidence of such value, there can be no recovery; or, if there be any right of recovery upon the showing made, it is for nominal damages only, and it was, therefore, error for the trial court to overrule the defendant’s offer to prove such value to be less than the amount of the draft.
The trial court did not err in directing a verdict for plaintiff, and the judgment appealed from is — Affirmed.