123 Ga. 386 | Ga. | 1905
The plaintiff, Philip Sellers, purchased a bill of goods from a mercantile firm in Brunswick, Ga., and gave directions to have the goods shipped to him at Statenville, Ga. The goods duly arrived at that station over the line of the defendant railway company, and the plaintiff called upon the local agent to deliver them to him. They were marked with his initials, “ P. S.” The agent declined to make delivery to him. According to the testimony of the plaintiff, the reason assigned by the agent for refusing to do so was that he had not received the way-bill and did not know the amount of the freight charges, though he at the same time expressed some doubt as to the plaintiff being the consignee of the goods. The plaintiff had but recently established a place of business twenty-four miles from the station, was a stranger in the community, and was unknown to the agent. The plaintiff offered to deposit with the agent $20 to cover the freight charges, but the agent declined to receive the money, saying it was against the orders of the company to deliver freight in the absence of a way-bill.
1. Inasmuch as the law exacts of a common carrier of freight that it shall ascertain beyond question, before delivering goods to a person claiming the right to receive them, that he is the proper person to whom to make delivery,nnd puts upon the carrier the entire risk of making a mistake as to the identity of the consignee, it is but reasonable that the carrier should be permitted to exercise the right of calling on the consignee to establish his claim to the shipment. Hutch. Car. (2d ed.) §344. If the person who applies for the goods is not known to the carrier, and there is any doubt as to his right to receive them, the carrier “should require the most unquestionable proof of his identity.” Ibid. And, to this end, “the carrier may properly require the production of the bill of lading by the consignee, as evidence of his right to demand delivery of the goods.” Ibid. § 423a. Accordingly it. was held by this court in Bass v. Glover, 63 Ga. 745, that “A railroad company completing the transportation of freight, begun by other common carriers whose lines are connected with the railroad by an intermediate line or lines, may, for its own security, exact the production of the bill of lading before making delivery of the goods to the consignee.” Failure to do so may, indeed, establish liability for an improper delivery to him. Boatmen’s Savings Bank v. Railroad Co., 81 Ga. 221. The company sued in the present case was not the initial carrier, and its local agent was not presumed to know what were the
2. The charge - of the court was in accord with the law as above announced. Complaint is made, however, that the judge, in referring to the paper which the company contended its agent called on the plaintiff to produce as evidence of his right to demand delivery of the shipment, alluded to it as “ the way-bill or bill of lading.” The use of the term “ way-bill,” the plaintiff in error insists, was calculated to convey to the jury the idea that it was incumbent on the plaintiff to produce a paper which should have accompanied the- shipment and should have been in the hands of the carrier, not in the possession of the consignee. The technical meaning of the term is doubtless that indicated by the plaintiff. See 2 Bouv. L. Die. 1222 ; 30 Am. & Eng. Ene. L. (2d ed.) 440; Peixotti v. McLaughlin, 1 Strobh. L. (S. C.) 468, 47 Am. Dec. 563. But we do not think the jury could have been misled" as to the meaning of the judge when he undertook to instruct them as to the right of the local agent to demand of the plaintiff the paper evidencing his claim to the shipment. The term “ bill of lading ” was not the precise technical word by which that paper could be accurately referred to, since, strictly speaking, the term is one to be applied only to the written evidence of a contract for the carriage and delivery of goods sent by sea, though it is now in common use in connection with the affreightment of goods by water other than the sea, or carriage by rail. See 4 Am. & Eng. Enc. L. (2d ed.) 509 ; 5 Cyc. 707; Cyc. L. Dic. 965. “Freight bill” or “freight receipt” was, perhaps, the most technically correct term to employ. Ibid.; Hutch. Car. (2d ed.) § 120. Still, a presiding judge may be accorded some latitude of expression, and it may well be presumed that an intelligent jury understood that which should be perfectly plain to a person of ordinary mental capacity.
Exception is also taken to the following excerpt from the ■charge of the court: “ If you find from the evidence in this case that there was any delay in tendering the goods to the plaintiff, if they were tendered to him by the agent, . . and that this delay was occasioned because the defendant’s agent in good faith
Judgment affirmed.