56 Md. 209 | Md. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The first question that presents itself on this record is that raised by demurrer to the plaintiffs’ declaration. The declaration alleges that the defendant is a common carrier for hire ; that on the 28th of July, 1878, about the hour of 4 o’clock p. m. the defendant received from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company thirteen cars loaded with cattle, belonging to the plaintiffs, to be transported by the defendant, for a reward for that purpose paid or to be paid by the plaintiffs to the defendant, with reasonable despatch over the road of the defendant; but the defendant did not, nor would, transport the same with reasonable despatch, but detained the same upon its road, in the City of Baltimore, from the time of the delivery to the defendant until about half past 12 o’clock a. m. of the morning of Monday, July 29th, 1878. By reason whereof the said cars, so laden with cattle, failed to reach Jersey City stock-yards, their point of destination, until the hour of 3 o’clock p. m. of the day last mentioned, and too late for the market of that day ; and the plaintiffs were compelled to retain the cattle until the market of Wednesday following, whereby a large shrinkage took place in the weight of the cattle, and deterioration of their condition, and the plaintiffs were put to great expense, in feeding the cattle during the period of delay, and loss of time thereby, and suffered loss by reason of the decline in the market value of the cattle, &c.
As the defendant is charged with failure of duty, in the exercise of its calling as a common carrier for hire, the question raised by the demurrer is, whether on a Sunday there was, in the absence of a special contract, a common law duty imposed upon it, unrestricted and unaffected by statute, to carry or forward the cattle of the plaintiffs on that day, under the facts alleged in'the declaration.
The declaration does not allege in terms that the cattle were delivered to the defendant for transportation on Sunday, but it alleges that the defendant received of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, a connecting road, the cattle on the 28th of July, 1878, to be transported with reasonable despatch over its road. It is the duty of the Court to notice the days of the week on which particular days of the month fall; and hence we know, without other averment, that the 28th of July, 1878, was Sunday. Hoyle vs. Cornwallis, 1 Strange, 387; Kilgour vs. Miles, 6 G. & J., 268. And in the regular division of time, Sunday embraces all of the twenty-four hours next ensuing the midnight of Saturday.
Supposing the defendant to have professed and held itself out as a common carrier of live stock on Sunday as on other days of the week, whether it would have been bound to accept for carriage from the plaintiffs, or from a connecting road, stock offered on a Sunday, is a question not necessary to be decided. It is alleged that the plaintiffs’ stock was offered on Sunday and actually received by the defendant to be transported over its road, with reasonable despatch. The action is founded upon the common lav? duty and liability of the defendant as a common carrier of live stock, and not upon any special contract either as between the plaintiffs and defendant, or as between the defendant and other connecting roads. It is
Most, if not all, of the States of the Union have what are familiarly known as Sunday laws; and while they may differ in their phraseology and the penalties imposed, they are substantially the same in their general scope and provision ; — all looking to keeping the day sacred, and as one of rest from secular employments. Of these laws there has been great diversity of interpretation. Some Courts holding to them with great strictness, while others have construed them with considerable liberality, — and especially in cases where, by strict construction, impediments and embarrassments would be raised to the great carrying business ef the country. In this Court we have had no case analogous to the present; but, looking to what has been decided elsewhere, we have no doubt in • concluding that our Sunday law, as found in the Code, Art. 30, sec. 178, has no application to this case whatever. That statute forbids all persons to “ work or to do any bodily labor on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sundayand it provides that no person shall command or willingly suffer any of his servants to do any manner of work or labor on that day — works of necessity and charity always excepted ;— and a small penalty is prescribed for a breach of the statute.
According to the principles of the common law, applicable to common carriers, the defendant having accepted the stock to be transported over its road, in the usual course of transit, it at once became its duty to forward the same without unnecessary delay or detention. Its obligation was to carry according to its public profession,
And having disposed of the question raised upon the-demurrer to the declaration, we come now to consider the questions raised upon the facts of the case as proved upon the trial, under the plea of the general issue, not guilty.
The defendant owned and operated a line of railroad between Baltimore and Philadelphia, connecting at Canton, a mile and a quarter out of Baltimore, by ferry, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Locust Point, and at Gray’s Ferry, near Philadelphia, with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Its principal offices, and the
With this arrangement existing, the plaintiffs, on Saturday, the -27th of July, 1878, started from the Ohio river, at Parkersburg, West Virginia, thirteen car loads of cattle, over the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad, destined for Jersey City, The train was regularly due in Baltimore at 12 o’clock, m. of Sunday, the 28th of July. It did not, however, arrive on time. It reached Mount Clare, Baltimore, a little before 5 o’clock of that afternoon; and it left that station for Locust Point about 5.85 p. m.; •and all the cars did not reach the tracks of the defend
It is shown in proof by the testimony of witnesses, and the production of telegrams, that on Saturday, July 27th, at 12.45 p. m. the agents of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, at Mount Clare, notified, by telegraph, the agents of the defendant, at the -home office in Philadelphia, at the President Street Depot, in Baltimore, and at Canton Station, that there would be, on the following day, from twenty to thirty cars of stock to go through to Philadelphia and New York; and that they would leave Mount Clare Station, at about 3J o’clock p. m. On Sunday, the 28th, several despatches were sent from the office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. to the agents of the defendant, announcing stock to be forwarded to Philadelphia and Jersey City, and all of which despatches, were duly received by the agents of the defendant. The first of these appears to have been sent at 3.40 p. m., giving notice of fifteen cars, by numbers and consignments. The next to the defendant’s agent at Canton, at 3.45 p. m., and to the agent at the President Street Depot, at 5.10 p. m. Another was sent at 4.55 p. m., to the agents at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Canton, giving notice of twenty-four cars, by numbers and consignments ; and another was sent to same agents at 5.20 p. m.; this last giving notice of thirteen cars, by numbers and consignments, and having special reference to the plaintiffs’ stock. By the despatch that was sent to the defendant’s agent at Canton at 3.45 p. m., and to the agent at the President Street Depot at 5.10 p. m., those agents were informed that fifteen cars of stock were still
Upon the notification thus given, the defendant had in reserve at Baltimore but two engines and two sets of hands to take forward the cattle trains that arrived during the afternoon of Sunday, the 28th of July. Of the cars that arrived between 3 and 4 o’clock of that afternoon, two trains were made up, and were sent forward about 5 o’clock that evening; the engine for the first train leaving President Street Depot at 4.35 p. m., and that for the second at 4.51 p. m., the whole number of cars in the two trains being thirty-nine — nine more than were given notice of by the despatch of Saturday. The cars with the plaintiffs’ cattle, having been received on the defendant’s road about 1 o’clock p. m., were not taken forward until fifteen minutes after 12 o’clock that night. They were delivered on the tracks of the Pennsylvania Bailroad, at Gray’s Ferry, on the morning of July 29th, at about 5.10 a. m., and they were moved forward on the last mentioned road a few minutes before 6 o’clock of that morning. The cattle, however, did not arrive at Jersey City until about 2-|- or 3 o’clock p. m. of that day, and too late for that day’s market. The next market day was Wednesday, when the cattle were sold.
In the absence of an express contract, the common law duty and liability of a common carrier for the safe carriage and due delivery of live animals are the same as that for the carriage and delivery of other property; the liability in all cases being qualified by the nature and inherent tendencies of the thing carried. In undertaking the carriage of live stock, therefore, the carrier assumes the obligation to deliver safely, and within a reasonable
In this case, there can be, of course, no liability on the part of the defendant for any delay in the transportation of the cattle before they reached the tracks of, and were received by, the defendant; nor is the defendant liable for any delay in carrying forward the cattle after they were delivered on the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at Gray's Ferry. In the case of an intermediate carrier, as the defendant in this case, that accepts property for carriage, directed to a place beyond the terminus of its route, the law, in the absence of a special contract, or of special circumstances, implies an undertaking on the part of the carrier, to deliver the property carried, at the end of its route, to the next succeeding carrier; and for any failure in this duty, within a reasonable time, the carrier is liable to all the consequences of such failure. Railroad Co. vs. Manf. Co., 16 Wall., 318; Railroad Co. vs. Pratt, 22 Wall., 123; Pratt vs. Railway Co., 95 U. S., 43; Rawson vs. Holland, 59 N. Y., 611; Phil. Wilm. & Balt. R. Co., vs. Harper, 29 Md., 330. The principal question here is, whether, according' to the ordinary extent and usual course of the cattle trade on Sunday, over the defendant’s road from Baltimore, and the notice given the defendant's agents of the approach of trains for transportation on Sunday, the 28th of July, the defendant had made reasonable provision, and exerted due care and diligence, to guard against delay in forwarding the cattle trains that might he received from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on that day ; or whether, upon the receipt of such notice as ’ was given, the requisite means or eqxxipment could have been provided, by reasonable exertion, to
With respect to the question of damages and the extent thereof to which the plaintiffs may be entitled to recover, it is only necessary to say a few words, in view of the authorities upon the subject. As it is sought to charge the
With these principles in view we may now dispose of the several prayers ruled upon by the Court below, and which were the subjects of exception by the defendant.
The first prayer on the part of the plaintiffs, and which was granted, we think erroneous. By that prayer it was not submitted to the jury to find whether the defendant had made proper exertions, and used due and reasonable diligence, under all the circumstances of the case, to avoid unnecessary delay in the transportation of the cattle ; or whether the cattle could have been carried forward with greater expedition and despatch than they were, by the use of reasonable precaution and diligence on the part of the defendant, under the circumstances in reference to which it was called upon to act. The prayer assumes it as a principle that, the defendant having accepted the property for carriage for a particular market, the delay of five hours more than the the usual time could not be excused, and that the defendant was bound to carry and deliver within, a certain time, without reference to causes
The plaintiffs’ second prayer, which was also granted, has not been seriously questioned in this Court. It appears to be substantially correct, when construed in reference to the facts required to be found by the first prayer, and other undisputed facts in the case; and we shall therefore say nothing more in regard to it.
The first prayer on the p$rt of the defendant, which was rejected, we think should have been granted. It was not as full and as explicit, perhaps, as it might have been made; but it would seem to embody all the elements of fact to make it a good defence to the action, if found by the jury.
The defendant’s second prayer was properly refused. If the defendant had been guilty of such negligence in the transportation of the stock as to render it liable, it could not relieve itself by showing that a connecting road might have made up for its default. The duties and liabilities of the two roads were entirely distinct; and no recovery could be had against either, unless the injury complained of was caused by or resulted from the default of the particular party sued. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company might well say, that if the cattle train had been delivered on its tracks at Gray’s Perry four or five honrs sooner than it was, it would have reached Jersey City in ample time for the market of Monday, the 29th of July. The defendant’s third prayer was also properly refused, because it made the defendant’s liability, to some extent, to depend upon the exercise or non-exercise of such reasonable diligence as might have been within the power of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. But we think the fourth and fifth prayers of the defendant, as
It follows that the judgment below must be reversed, and a new trial ordered.
Judgment reversed, and new trial aioarded.