69 Tex. 120 | Tex. | 1887
This action was brought by the appellee to recover the value of a valise and its contents, consisting of such articles as persons traveling need and usually carry with them. The cause was tried without a jury and a judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff.
The loss occurred on October 27, 1886, and the train reached Terrell about six or seven o’clock p. m. The doors of the sleeper were open when the appellee returned to it after going to' the telegraph office. The evidence tends to show that the porter knew that the appellee deposited his valise on the floor of the smoking room of the sleeper. The conclusions of law and fact found by the judge who tried the cause seem not to have been asked, or, at least, are not found in the transcript. There is no evidence tending to show the true relation between the railway-company and the appellant, or tending to show the true relation Of the appellant to persons who after having acquired the right to be transported and to occupy a berth in its sleeper, entered it with his baggage, further than as this may appear from the statement already made. Enough, however, appears to show that the appellant assumed to the appellees the duties of a carrier, and while it is evidently true that it did not assume the duties and liabilities which the common law imposes upon common carriers as to ordinary freight, or the liabilities which the inn keeper assumes to guests; yet we see no reason why it should not be held responsible just as any common carrier would be held responsible, for a failure to perform the duties which devolve upon the common- carrier in relation to the baggage of a passenger which is not given into the carrier’s exclusive custody.
The facts that a railway company to whose train a sleeping ear may be attached may not own such car or control its internal management, and that the same may be under the control of a company who does own and operate such car, and that the minimum compensation for transportation may be paid to the company to whose train the sleeper is attached, do not deprive the company so owning and operating a sleeping car of the character of passenger carrier; for the contract of such a company is not only that the passenger may sit and sleep in the car during the journey for which he contracts, but it goes further, and binds the owner of such car to transport the passenger in it, or some like carriage, to the place of destination, the passenger having paid the fare demanded by both companies.
If passengers by railway train retain the exclusive custody of their baggage, then the carrier is not responsible for its loss unless this results from the carrier’s negligence, and the failure of a passenger to use reasonable care in reference to it will defeat his right to recover.
In the case before us, the court below, in the absence of conclusions of fact and law showing to the contrary, must be presumed to have decided this case in accordance with the rules we have announced.- This involved a finding of fact that the valise was lost by reason of the failure of the appellant to use such care as the law requires, and so, without failure on the part of the appellee, to use that care required of him. Under
Affirmed.
Opinion delivered October 28, 1887.