87 N.Y. 413 | NY | 1882
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *415 The bills of lading, of the Erie and Pacific Dispatch, and the Great Western Dispatch Company, under which the cotton was shipped, contain provisions, limiting the liability of the carriers, and among others, a provision that the respective companies, and their connections, should not be liable "for loss or damage to the property by fire, while in transit, or while in deposit or places of transshipment, or at depots or landings at any point of delivery."
The bills of lading were through contracts; that is, contracts for the carriage of the cotton from Memphis, the place of shipment, to Liverpool, England, at a fixed rate for the whole distance. The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, was a party to the bills of lading of the Erie and Pacific Dispatch, and the National Steamship Company, to those of the Great Western Dispatch Company. But the undertakings of the respective carriers, although contained in a single instrument, were distinct and several, and not joint. The bills of lading of the Erie and Pacific Dispatch, declared that its contract was executed and accomplished, and that its liability as common carrier should terminate on the delivery of the property to the steamship of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, at the White Star wharf, Jersey City, when the liability of the steamship company should commence, and not before. Following this provision, is the contract of the steamship company, for the ocean carriage to Liverpool. The bills of lading of the Great Western Dispatch Company are of similar purport, the only difference being in the name of the steamship company, joining in the contract.
In February or March, 1873, the plaintiffs delivered to the respective dispatch companies, at Memphis, under the bills of lading referred to, in all, 1,090 bales of cotton, consigned to *418
Liverpool, deliverable to the order of the shippers. The defendant, in the course of the transit, received this cotton and carried it to Jersey City, the eastern terminus of its line. On the 21st of March, 1873, four hundred and twenty-eight bales of the cotton, then in the freight-house of the defendant, were destroyed by fire. The question presented is, whether the defendant is liable for its value? It is, we think, a clear proposition, that the defendant is entitled to the benefit of the restrictive clauses in the bills of lading. They are made applicable, by express language, to the company using them, andits connections. The defendant's road formed, with other railways, a continuous line of railroad, between Memphis and New York. It does not appear that the defendant was a member of either of the dispatch companies, or that in respect to the carriage of the cotton, it occupied any other relation to those companies, than that of intermediate carrier, receiving the property for transportation over its line. The dispatch companies were not owners of the railroads over which the cotton was transported, but used the several lines of road between Memphis and New York, in the performance of their contracts with the plaintiffs. It may be supposed, that special and more favorable arrangements were made with the several roads for the carriage of property, under the bills of lading of the dispatch companies, in view of the limited liability therein. However this may have been, the carriage of the cotton by the defendant in aid of the contracts of the dispatch companies, made it one of theconnections, mentioned in the bills of lading, and the contract of exemption inured to the defendant's benefit, and the defendant is exonerated from liability for the loss occasioned by the fire, unless the fire resulted from its negligence. (Babcock v. TheL.S. M.S. Railway Co.,
The plaintiff asked to have the question of the defendant's negligence submitted to the jury, but the judge denied the request, and granted a nonsuit. The plaintiff's counsel insists that the nonsuit was erroneous, for two reasons: first, that, it having been shown that the fire originated on the defendant's *419
premises, in the roof of the passenger depot, from which it communicated to the freight-house where the cotton was stored, and no explanation having been given of the origin of the fire, the presumption of negligence attached, and the question should have been submitted to the jury; second, that the evidence tended to show an unreasonable detention of the cotton by the defendant after its arrival, and a violation of its duty to make prompt delivery to the steamship companies, and that, except for such detention and non-delivery, the cotton would not have been in the freight-house at the time of the fire. (See Read v.Spaulding,
The bills of lading contain a general exemption from liability for loss by fire, and the loss having occurred from this cause, it was incumbent on the plaintiff, in order to avoid the effect of the exemption, to show that the fire was the result of the defendant's negligence, or that the loss resulted from some breach of the defendant's duty. The burden was upon the plaintiff to show facts taking the case out of the operation of the exemption clause. (Lamb v. Camden Amboy R.R. T. Co.,
The claim that there was an unreasonable detention of the cotton by the defendant, after arrival, and a failure of prompt delivery, is not supported by the evidence. The general duty of an intermediate carrier of property involves an obligation on his part to deliver the property, at the end of his route, to the succeeding carrier, within a reasonable time after its arrival. (Rawson v. Holland,
The judgment should be affirmed.
All concur.
Judgment affirmed. *422