Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/82376/railroad-company-vs-lockwood
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:22:19+00:00

Document:
1. A common carrier cannot lawfully stipulate for exemption from responsibility when such exemption is not just and reasonable in the eye of the law.
2. It is not just and reasonable in the eye of the law for a common carrier to stipulate for exemption from responsibility for the negligence of himself or his servants.
3. These rules apply both to common carriers of goods and common carriers of passengers, and with especial force to the latter.
4. They apply to the case of a drover traveling on a stock train to look after his cattle, and having a free pass for that purpose.
5. Query: whether the same rules would apply to a strictly free passenger.
6. Held, arguendo, that a common carrier does not drop his character as such merely by entering into a contract for limiting his responsibility.
7. That carefulness and fidelity are essential duties of his employment which cannot be abdicated.
8. That these duties are as essential to the public security in his servants as in himself.
9. That a failure to fulfill these duties is "negligence," the distinction between "gross" and "ordinary" negligence being unnecessary.
and that the negligence of the defendants caused the injury, they must find for the plaintiff, which they did. Judgment being entered accordingly, the railroad company took this writ of error.
It is unnecessary to notice some subordinate points made, as this Court was of opinion that all the questions of fact were fairly left to the jury and that the whole controversy depended on the main question of law stated.
It may be assumed in limine that the case was one of carriage for hire, for though the pass certifies that the plaintiff was entitled to pass free, yet his passage was one of the mutual terms of the arrangement for carrying his cattle. The question is therefore distinctly raised whether a railroad company carrying passengers for hire can lawfully stipulate not to be answerable for their own or their servants' negligence in reference to such carriage.
needed modifications could have been introduced into the law. But the great hardship on the carrier in certain special cases, where goods of great value or subject to extra risk were delivered to him without notice of their character and where losses happened by sheer accident without any possibility of fraud or collusion on his part, such as by collisions at sea, accidental fire &c.;, led to a relaxation of the rule to the extent of authorizing certain exemptions from liability in such cases to be provided for, either by public notice brought home to the owners of the goods or by inserting exemptions from liability in the bill of lading or other contract of carriage. A modification of the strict rule of responsibility exempting the carrier from liability for accidental losses where it can be safely done enables the carrying interest to reduce its rates of compensation, thus proportionally relieving the transportation of produce and merchandise from some of the burden with which it is loaded.
The question is whether such modification of responsibility by notice or special contract may not be carried beyond legitimate bounds and introduce evils against which it was the direct policy of the law to guard; whether, for example, a modification which gives license and immunity to negligence and carelessness on the part of a public carrier or his servants is not so evidently repugnant to that policy as to be altogether null and void, or at least null and void under certain circumstances.
have been made by state legislatures. This seems to be the only important modification of previously existing law on the subject, which in this country has been effected by legislative interference. And by this it is seen that though intended for the relief of the shipowner, it still leaves him liable to the extent of his ship and freight for the negligence and misconduct of his employees, and liable without limit for his own negligence.
It is true that the first section of the above act, relating to loss by fire, has a proviso that nothing in the act contained shall prevent the parties from making such contract as they please extending or limiting the liability of shipowners. This proviso, however, neither enacts nor affirms anything. It simply expresses the intent of Congress to leave the right of contracting as it stood before the act.
But since the decision in the case of New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. Merchants' Bank [ Footnote 2 ] by this Court in January Term, 1848, it has been uniformly held as well in the courts of New York as in the federal courts that a common carrier may, by special contract, limit his common law liability, although considerable diversity of opinion has existed as to the extent to which such limitation is admissible.
The case of New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v.
Merchants' Bank, above adverted to, grew out of the burning of the steamer Lexington. Certain money belonging to the bank had been entrusted to Harnden's Express to be carried to Boston, and was on board the steamer when she was destroyed. By agreement between the steamboat company and Harnden, the crate of the latter and its contents were to be at his sole risk. The Court held this agreement valid so far as to exonerate the steamboat company from the responsibility imposed by law, but not to excuse them for misconduct or negligence, which the Court said it would not presume that the parties intended to include, although the terms of the contract were broad enough for that purpose, and that inasmuch as the company had undertaken to carry the goods from one place to another, they were deemed to have incurred the same degree of responsibility as that which attaches to a private person engaged casually in the like occupation, and were therefore bound to use ordinary care in the custody of the goods and in their delivery and to provide proper vehicles and means of conveyance for their transportation, and as the Court was of opinion that the steamboat company had been guilty of negligence in these particulars as well as in the management of the steamer during the fire, they held them responsible for the loss.
As this has been regarded as a leading case, we may pause for a moment to observe that the case before us seems almost precisely within the category of that decision. In that case as in this, the contract was general, exempting the carrier from every risk and imposing it all upon the party; but the Court would not presume that the parties intended to include the negligence of the carrier or his agents in that exception.
mind of the parties is somewhat arbitrary, we will proceed to examine the question before propounded -- namely whether common carriers may excuse themselves from liability for negligence. In doing so, we shall first briefly review the course of decisions in New York, on which great stress has been laid and which are claimed to be decisive of the question. Whilst we cannot concede this, it is nevertheless due to the courts of that state to examine carefully the grounds of their decision and to give them the weight which they justly deserve. We think it will be found, however, that the weight of opinion even in New York is not altogether on the side that favors the right of the carrier to stipulate for exemption from the consequences of his own or his servants' negligence.
"A common carrier has in truth two distinct liabilities -- the one for losses by accident or mistake, where he is liable as an insurer; the other for losses by default or negligence, where he is answerable as an ordinary bailee. It would certainly seem reasonable that he might, by express special contract, restrict his liability as insurer; that he might protect himself against misfortune, even though public policy should require that he should not be permitted to stipulate for impunity where the loss occurs from his own default or neglect of duty. Such we understand to be the doctrine laid down in the case of New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. Merchants' Bank in 6th Howard, and such we consider to be the law in the present case."
"Conforming our decision to that of the Supreme Court of the United States, we must therefore hold: 1st. That the liability of the defendants as common carriers was restricted by the terms of the special agreement between them and Adams & Co., and that this restriction was valid in law. 2d. That by the just interpretation of this agreement, the defendants were not to be exonerated from all losses, but remained liable for such as might result from the wrongful acts or the want of due care and diligence of themselves or their agents and servants. 3d. That the plaintiffs, claiming through Adams & Co., are bound by the special agreement."
The same view was taken in subsequent cases, [ Footnote 5 ] all of which show that no idea was then entertained of sanctioning exemptions of liability for negligence.
It was not till 1858, in the case of Welles v. New York Central Railroad Company, [ Footnote 6 ] that the supreme court was brought to assent to the proposition that a common carrier may stipulate against responsibility for the negligence of his servants. That was the case of a gratuitous passenger traveling on a free ticket, which exempted the company from liability. In 1862, the Court of Appeals, by a majority, affirmed this judgment, [ Footnote 7 ] and in answer to the suggestion that public policy required that railroad companies should not be exonerated from the duty of carefulness in performing their important and hazardous duties, the court held that the case of free passengers could not seriously affect the incentives to carefulness, because there were very few such compared with the great mass of the traveling public. Perkins v. New York Central Railroad Company, [ Footnote 8 ] was also the case of a free passenger, with a similar ticket, and the court held that the endorsement exempted the company from all kinds of negligence of its agents, gross as well as ordinary; that there is, in truth, no practical distinction in the degrees of negligence.
"I think not only gross negligence is not protected by the terms of the contract, but what is termed ordinary negligence, or the withholding of ordinary care, is not so protected. I think, notwithstanding the contract, the carrier is responsible for what, independent of any peculiar responsibility attached to his calling or employment, would be regarded as fault or misconduct on his part."
company would have been discharged, but in their view he was not a gratuitous passenger. One judge was for affirmance on the ground that the negligence was that of the company itself. The remaining three judges held the contract valid to the utmost extent of exonerating the company, notwithstanding the grossest neglect on the part of its servants.
In that case, as in the one before us, the contract was general in its terms, and did not specify negligence of agents as a risk assumed by the passenger, though by its generality it included all risks.
and by Justice Denio against the conclusion reached by the court. The former considered that no rule of public policy forbids such contracts, because the public is amply protected by the right of everyone to decline any special contract, on paying the regular fare prescribed by law -- that is, the highest amount which the law allows the company to charge. In other words, unless a man chooses to pay the highest amount which the company by its charter is authorized to charge, he must submit to their terms, however onerous. Justice Denio with much force of argument combated this view and insisted upon the impolicy and immorality of contracts stipulating immunity for negligence either of servants or principals where the lives and safety of passengers are concerned. The late case of Poucher v. New York Central Railroad Company [ Footnote 13 ] is in all essential respects a similar case to this, and a similar result was reached.
question of general commercial law, the federal courts administering justice in New York have equal and coordinate jurisdiction with the courts of that state. And in deciding a case which involves a question of such importance to the whole country -- a question on which the courts of New York have expressed such diverse views, and have so recently and with such slight preponderancy of judicial suffrage come to the conclusion that they have -- we should not feel satisfied without being able to place our decision upon grounds satisfactory to ourselves and resting upon what we consider sound principles of law.
"are already being gathered in increasing accidents, through the decreasing care and vigilance on the part of these corporations, and they will continue to be reaped until a just sense of public policy shall lead to legislative restriction upon the power to make this kind of contracts. [ Footnote 15 ]"
We now proceed to notice some cases decided in other states in which a different view of the subject is taken.
"This endorsement relieves the company from all liability for any cause whatever, for any loss or injury to the person or property, however it may have been occasioned, and our doctrine, settled by the above decisions, made upon grave deliberation, declares that such a release is no excuse for negligence."
"He cannot, however, protect himself from losses occasioned by his own fault. He exercises a public employment, and diligence and good faith in the discharge of his duties are essential to the public interests. . . . And public policy forbids that he should be relieved by special agreement from that degree of diligence and fidelity which the law has exacted in the discharge of his duties."
"In this state, at least, railroad companies are rapidly becoming almost the exclusive carriers both of passengers and goods. In consequence of the public character and agency which they have voluntarily assumed, the most important powers and privileges have been granted to them by the state."
"This doctrine, when applied to a corporation which can only act through its agents and servants, would secure complete immunity for the neglect of every duty."
And in relation to a drover's pass substantially the same as that in the present case, the same court, in Cleveland Railroad v. Curran, [ Footnote 22 ] held: 1st. That the holder was not a gratuitous passenger; 2dly. That the contract constituted no defense against the negligence of the company's servants, being against the policy of the law, and void. The court refers to the cases of Bissell v. New York Central Railroad, [ Footnote 23 ] and of Pennsylvania Railroad v. Henderson, [ Footnote 24 ] and expresses its concurrence in the Pennsylvania decision. This was in December Term, 1869.
The Pennsylvania and Ohio decisions differ mainly in this, that the former give to a special contract (when the same is admissible) the effect of converting the common carrier into a special bailee for hire, whose duties are governed by his contract, and against whom, if negligence is charged, it must be proved by the party injured, whilst the latter hold that the character of the carrier is not changed by the contract, but that he is a common carrier still, with enlarged exemptions from responsibility within which the burden of proof is on him to show that an injury occurs. The effect of this difference is to shift the burden of proof from one party to the other. It is unnecessary to adjudicate that point in this case, as the judge on the trial charged the jury, as requested by the defendants, that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff.
"to be anticipated by permitting them [common carriers] to enter into contracts to be exempt from losses occasioned by misconduct or negligence, can scarcely be overestimated. It would remove the principal safeguard for the preservation of life and property in such conveyances. [ Footnote 26 ]"
"The special contract here set up is not alleged, and could not by law be permitted, to exempt the defendants from liability for injuries by their own negligence."
"If he would per case refuse to carry it [articles delivered for carriage] unless promise were made unto him that he shall not be charged for no misdemeanor that should be in him, the promise were void, for it were against reason and against good manners, and so it is in all other cases like."
A century later, this passage is quoted by Attorney General Noy in his book of Maxims as unquestioned law. [ Footnote 30 ] And so the law undoubtedly stood in England until comparatively a very recent period. Serjeant Steven, in his Commentaries, [ Footnote 31 ] after stating that a common carrier's liability might at common law be varied by contract, adds that the law still held him responsible for negligence and misconduct.
The question arose in England principally upon public notices given by common carriers that they would not be responsible for valuable goods unless entered and paid for according to value. The courts held that this was a reasonable condition, and, if brought home to the owner, amounted to a special contract valid in law. But it was also held that it could not exonerate the carrier if a loss occurred by his actual misfeasance or gross negligence. Or, as Starkie says, "proof of a direct misfeasance or gross negligence is in effect an answer to proof of notice." [ Footnote 32 ] But the term "gross negligence" was so vague and uncertain that it came to represent every instance of actual negligence of the carrier or his servant -- or ordinary negligence in the accustomed mode of speaking. [ Footnote 33 ] Justice Story, in his work on bailments, [ Footnote 34 ] originally published in 1832, says that it is now held that in cases of such notices, the carrier is liable for losses and injury occasioned not only by gross negligence, but by ordinary negligence -- or in other words the carrier is bound to ordinary diligence.
In estimating the effect of these decisions it must be remembered that in the cases covered by the notices referred to, the exemption claimed was entire, covering all cases of loss, negligence as well as others. They are therefore directly in point.
"In my opinion, the weight of authority was, in 1832, in favor of this view of the law, but the cases decided in our courts between 1832 and 1854 established that this was not the law, and that a carrier might, by a special notice, make a contract limiting his responsibility even in the cases here mentioned of gross negligence, misconduct, or fraud on the part of his servants, and, as it seems to me, the reason why the legislature intervened in the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854, was because it thought that the companies took advantage of those decisions (in Story's language), 'to evade altogether the salutary policy of the common law.'"
long list of cases deciding what conditions were or were not just and reasonable. The truth is that this statute did little more than bring back the law to the original position in which it stood before the English courts took their departure from it. But as we shall have occasion to advert to this subject again, we pass it for the present.
It remains to see what has been held by this Court on the subject now under consideration.
"If it is competent at all for the carrier to stipulate for the gross negligence of himself and his servants or agents in the transportation of goods, it should be required to be done, at least, in terms that would leave no doubt as to the meaning of the parties."
"When carriers undertake to convey persons by the powerful but dangerous agency of steam, public policy and safety require that they be held to the greatest possible care and diligence. And whether the consideration for such transportation be pecuniary or otherwise, the personal safety of the passengers should not be left to the sport of chance or the negligence of careless agents. Any negligence in such cases may well deserve the epithet of 'gross.' That was the case of a free passenger, a stockholder of the company, taken over the road by the president to examine its condition, and it was contended in argument that, as to him, nothing but 'gross negligence' would make the company liable. In the subsequent case of The Steamboat New World v. King, [ Footnote 40 ] which was also the case of a free passenger carried on a steamboat and injured by the explosion of the boiler, Curtis Justice, delivering the judgment, quoted the above proposition of Justice Grier and said:"
resting not only on public policy, but on sound principles of law."
"When such stipulation is made and it does not cover losses from negligence or misconduct, we can perceive no just reason for refusing its recognition and enforcement."
In the case of Walker v. Transportation Company, decided at the same term, [ Footnote 42 ] it is true, the owner of a vessel destroyed by fire on the lakes was held not to be responsible for the negligence of the officers and agents having charge of the vessel, but that was under the Act of 1851, which the Court held to apply to our great lakes as well as to the sea. And in Express Company v. Kountze Brothers, [ Footnote 43 ] where the carriers were sued for the loss of gold dust delivered to them on a bill of lading excluding liability for any loss or damage by fire, act of God, enemies of the government, or dangers incidental to a time of war, they were held liable for a robbery by a predatory band of armed men (one of the excepted risks) because they negligently and needlessly took a route which was exposed to such incursions. The judge at the trial charged the jury that although the contract was legally sufficient to restrict the liability of the defendants as common carriers, yet if they were guilty of actual negligence, they were responsible, and that they were chargeable with negligence unless they exercised the care and prudence of a prudent man in his own affairs. This was held by this Court to be a correct statement of the law.
leave but little to be added to the considerations which they suggest.
It is argued that a common carrier, by entering into a special contract with a party for carrying his goods or person on modified terms, drops his character and becomes an ordinary bailee for hire, and therefore may make any contract he pleases. That is, he may make any contract whatever because he is an ordinary bailee, and he is an ordinary bailee because he has made the contract.
a public carrier as to the twenty parcels and a private carrier as to the one?
A common carrier may undoubtedly become a private carrier or a bailee for hire when, as a matter of accommodation or special engagement, he undertakes to carry something which it is not his business to carry. For example, if a carrier of produce, running a truck boat between New York City and Norfolk, should be requested to carry a keg of specie or a load of expensive furniture which he could justly refuse to take, such agreement might be made in reference to his taking and carrying the same as the parties chose to make, not involving any stipulation contrary to law or public policy. But when a carrier has a regularly established business for carrying all or certain articles, and especially if that carrier be a corporation created for the purpose of the carrying trade and the carriage of the articles is embraced within the scope of its chartered powers, it is a common carrier, and a special contract about its responsibility does not divest it of the character.
stringent motive for the exercise of carefulness and fidelity in his trust. In regard to passengers, the highest degree of carefulness and diligence is expressly exacted. In the one case, the securing of the most exact diligence and fidelity underlies the law, and is the reason for it; in the other, it is directly and absolutely prescribed by the law. It is obvious, therefore, that if a carrier stipulate not to be bound to the exercise of care and diligence, but to be at liberty to indulge in the contrary, he seeks to put off the essential duties of his employment. And to assert that he may do so seems almost a contradiction in terms.
Now to what avail does the law attach these essential duties to the employment of the common carrier if they may be waived in respect to his agents and servants, especially where the carrier is an artificial being, incapable of acting except by agents and servants? It is carefulness and diligence in performing the service which the law demands, not an abstract carefulness and diligence in proprietors and stockholders who take no active part in the business. To admit such a distinction in the law of common carriers, as the business is now carried on, would be subversive of the very object of the law.
"To say the parties have not a right to make their own contract, and to limit the precise extent of their own respective risks and liabilities in a matter no way affecting the public morals or conflicting with the public interests would, in my judgment, be an unwarrantable restriction upon trade and commerce and a most palpable invasion of personal right."
contracts of the kind referred to? Is not the whole business community affected by holding such contracts valid? If held valid, the advantageous position of the companies exercising the business of common carriers is such that it places it in their power to change the law of common carriers in effect by introducing new rules of obligation.
The carrier and his customer do not stand on a footing of equality. The latter is only one individual of a million. He cannot afford to higgle or stand out and seek redress in the courts. His business will not admit such a course. He prefers, rather, to accept any bill of lading, or sign any paper the carrier presents -- often, indeed, without knowing what the one or the other contains. In most cases, he has no alternative but to do this or abandon his business. In the present case, for example, the freight agent of the company testified that though they made forty or fifty contracts every week like that under consideration, and had carried on the business for years, no other arrangement than this was ever made with any drover. And the reason is obvious enough -- if they did not accept this, they must pay tariff rates. These rates were 70 cents a hundred pounds for carrying from Buffalo to Albany, and each horned animal was rated at 2,000 pounds, making a charge of $14 for every animal carried, instead of the usual charge of $70 for a carload, being a difference of three to one. Of course, no drover could afford to pay such tariff rates. This fact is adverted to for the purpose of illustrating how completely in the power of the railroad companies parties are and how necessary it is to stand firmly by those principles of law by which the public interests are protected.
all events. Hence the exemptions referred to were deemed reasonable and proper to be allowed. But the proposition to allow a public carrier to abandon altogether his obligations to the public and to stipulate for exemptions that are unreasonable and improper, amounting to an abdication of the essential duties of his employment, would never have been entertained by the sages of the law.
Hence, as before remarked, we regard the English statute called the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, passed in 1854, which declared void all notices and conditions made by common carriers except such as the judge at the trial or the courts should hold just and reasonable as substantially a return to the rules of the common law. It would have been more strictly so, perhaps, had the reasonableness of the contract been referred to the law instead of the individual judges. The decisions made for more than half a century before the courts commenced the abnormal course which led to the necessity of that statute, giving effect to certain classes of exemptions stipulated for by the carrier, may be regarded as authorities on the question as to what exemptions are just and reasonable. So the decisions of our own courts are entitled to like effect when not made under the fallacious notion that every special contract imposed by the common carrier on his customers must be carried into effect for the simple reason that it was entered into, without regard to the character of the contract and the relative situation of the parties.
obligations of the carrier to the public operate with full force to divest the transaction of validity.
"that common carriers have public duties which they are bound to discharge with impartiality, we must conclude that they cannot, either by notices or special contracts, release themselves from the performance of these public duties, even by the consent of those who employ them, for all extortion is done by the apparent consent of the victim. A public officer or servant who has a monopoly in his department has no just right to impose onerous and unreasonable conditions upon those who are compelled to employ him."
"1. That the exemption claimed by carriers must be reasonable and just, otherwise it will be regarded as extorted from the owners of the goods by duress of circumstances, and therefore not binding."
"2. That every attempt of carriers, by general notices or special contract, to excuse themselves from responsibility for losses or damages resulting in any degree from their own want of care and faithfulness is against that good faith which the law requires as the basis of all contracts or employments, and therefore based upon principles and a policy which the law will not uphold."
The defendants endeavor to make a distinction between gross and ordinary negligence, and insist that the judge ought to have charged that the contract was at least effective for excusing the latter.
care is due and he fails to come up to the mark required, it is called slight negligence. And if ordinary care is due, such as a prudent man would exercise in his own affairs, failure to bestow that amount of care is called ordinary negligence. In each case, the negligence, whatever epithet we give it, is failure to bestow the care and skill which the situation demands, and hence it is more strictly accurate perhaps to call it simply "negligence." And this seems to be the tendency of modern authorities. [ Footnote 46 ] If they mean more than this and seek to abolish the distinction of degrees of care, skill, and diligence required in the performance of various duties and the fulfillment of various contracts, we think they go too far, since the requirement of different degrees of care in different situations is too firmly settled and fixed in the law to be ignored or changed. The compilers of the French Civil Code undertook to abolish these distinctions by enacting that "every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it." [ Footnote 47 ] Toullier, in his commentary on the code, regards this as a happy thought and a return to the law of nature. [ Footnote 48 ] But such an iron rule is too regardless of the foundation principles of human duty, and must often operate with great severity and injustice.
in the performance of that duty, then the company remains liable for such negligence. The question whether the company was guilty of negligence in this case, which caused the injury sustained by the plaintiff, was fairly left to the jury. It was unnecessary to tell them whether, in the language of law writers, such negligence would be called gross or ordinary.
First. That a common carrier cannot lawfully stipulate for exemption from responsibility when such exemption is not just reasonable in the eye of the law.
Secondly. That it is not just and reasonable in the eye of the law for a common carrier to stipulate for exemption from responsibility for the negligence of himself or his servants.
Thirdly. That these rules apply both to carriers of goods and carriers of passengers for hire, and with special force to the latter.
Fourthly. That a drover traveling on a pass, such as was given in this case, for the purpose of taking care of his stock on the train, is a passenger for hire.
These conclusions decide the present case, and require a judgment of affirmance. We purposely abstain from expressing any opinion as to what would have been the result of our judgment had we considered the plaintiff a free passenger instead of a passenger for hire.
Cole v. Goodwin, 19 Wendell 257; Gould v. Hill, 2 Hill 623.
Parsons v. Monteath, 13 Barb. 353; Moore v. Evans, 14 id. 524.
Ashmore v. Pennsylvania Steam Co., 4 Dutcher 180; Kinney v. Central Railroad Co., 3 Vroom 407; Hale v. New Jersey Steam Navigation Co., 15 Conn. 539; Peck v. Weeks, 34 id. 145; Lawrence v. New York Railroad Co., 36 id. 63; Kimball v. Rutland Railroad Co., 26 Vt. 247; Mann v. Birchard, 40 id. 326; Adams Express Co. v. Haynes, 42 Ill. 89; ib., 458; Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Adams Express Co., ib., 474; Hawkins v. Great Western Railroad Co., 17 Mich. 57; S.C., 18 id. 427; Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. v. Brady, 32 Md. 333; 25 id. 128; Levering v. Union Transportation Co., 42 Mo. 88.
Stinson v. New York Central Railroad Co., 32 N.Y. 337.
Laing v. Colder, 8 Pennsylvania state, 479; Camden and Amboy Railroad Co. v. Baldauf, 16 id. 67; Goldey v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 30 id. 242; Powell v. Same, 32 id. 414; Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. Henderson, 51 id. 315; Farnham v. Camden and Amboy Railroad Co., 55 id. 53; Express Company v. Sands, Ib. 140; Empire Transportation Co. v. Wamsutta Oil Co., 63 id. 14.
Jones v. Voorhees, 10 Ohio 145; Davidson v. Graham, 2 Ohio St. 131; Graham v. Davis, 4 id. 362; Wilson v. Hamilton, ib., 722; Welsh v. Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, 10 id. 75; Cleveland Railroad v. Curran, 19 id. 1; Cincinnati Railroad v. Pontius, ib., 221; Knowlton v. Erie Railway Co., ib., 260.
19 Ohio St. 1, 12, 13.
Fillebrown v. Grand Trunk Railway Co., 55 Me. 462.
Sager v. Portsmouth, 31 Me. 228, 238.
Indianapolis Railroad v. Allen, 31 Ind. 394; Michigan Southern Railroad v. Heaton, 31 id. 397, note; Flinn v. Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, 1 Houston 472: Orndorff v. Adams Express Co., 3 Bush 194; Swindler v. Hilliard & Brooks, 2 Richardson (So.Car.) 286; Berry v. Cooper, 28 Ga. 543; Steele v. Townsend, 37 Ala. 247; Southern Express Co. v. Crook, 44 id. 468; Whitesides v. Thurlkill, 12 Smedes & Marshall 599; Southern Express Co. v. Moon, 39 Miss. 822; New Orleans Mutual Insurance Co. v. Railroad Co., 20 La.Ann. 302.
Evidence, vol. 2, p. 205, 6th American edition.
Hinton v. Dibbin, 2 Adolphus & Ellis' N.S. 649; Wyld v. Pickford, 8 Meeson & Welsby 460.
10 House of Lords Cases 473.
47 U. S. 6 How. 383.
55 U. S. 14 How. 486.
57 U. S. 16 How. 469, 57 U. S. 474 .
70 U. S. 3 Wall. 113.
Ib., 70 U. S. 150 .
75 U. S. 8 Wall. 342, 75 U. S. 353 .
Davidson v. Graham, 2 Ohio St. 131; Graham v. Davis & Co., 4 id. 362; Swindler v. Hilliard, 2 Richardson 286; Baker v. Brinson, 9 id. 201; Steele v. Townsend, 37 Ala. 247.
1 Smith's Leading Cases 453, 7th American edition; Story on Bailments § 571; Wyld v. Pickford, 8 Meeson & Welsby 460; Hinton v. Dibbin, 2 Queen's Bench 661; Wilson v. Brett, 11 Meeson & Welsby 115; Beal v. South Devon Railway Co., 3 Hurlstone & Coltman 337; Grill v. Iron Screw Collier Co., Law Reports 1 Common Pleas 600; Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. v. Derby, 14 How. 486; Steamboat New World v. King, 16 How. 474.

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