Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/339/113.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 13:20:00+00:00

Document:
1. The Carmack Amendment was applicable to the shipment, and petitioner stated a claim against respondent upon which relief could be granted. Pp. 115-119.
2. The fact that the shipment originated in a foreign country, and that the goods were transported to New Orleans on an ocean bill of lading, did not render the Carmack Amendment inapplicable, since there was no through bill of lading from the foreign country to Boston and the foreign portion of the journey terminated at New Orleans. Pp. 117-119.
3. With respect to this transaction, respondent was the receiving carrier within the wording and meaning of the Carmack Amendment. P. 119.
Petitioner's suit against respondent for damages under the Carmack Amendment, 49 U.S.C. 20 (11), was dismissed by the District Court for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 176 F.2d 13. This Court granted certiorari. 338 U.S. 890 . Reversed, p. 119.
M. Truman Woodward, Jr. argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Thomas T. Railey, Fred G. Hudson, Jr., Robert E. Milling, Jr. and Elizabeth Ridnour Haak.
The question in this case is whether a claim for relief under the so-called Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act has been stated against respondent carrier. The District Court held that a claim within the Amendment had not been stated. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed by a divided court. 176 F.2d 13. Because the case presents an issue of importance in the application of a federal statute governing liability of common carriers for damage to goods transported by them, we granted certiorari. 338 U.S. 890 .
Notice of arrival should be addressed to (if consigned to Shipper's Order) Rudolf Reider 39 South Street Boston Mass. U.S.A."
The domestic bill of lading issued by respondent at New Orleans recited that the goods were received from H. P. Lambert Co. and consigned to the same H. P. Lambert Co. at Boston. The Court of Appeals characterized this railroad bill as a "supplemental bill of lading" issued by the domestic carrier to cover its portion of the transportation and delivery of a "through foreign shipment," and held that the Carmack Amendment was not intended to apply to such a foreign shipment. The tests laid down in United States v. Erie R. Co., 280 U.S. 98 , and Texas & New Orleans R. Co. v. Sabine Tram Co., 227 U.S. 111 , were applied by the Court of Appeals in determining that the transaction was a "through foreign shipment." And Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Porter, 273 U.S. 341 , was relied on as authority for the proposition that the Carmack Amendment was not intended to apply to such a shipment.
Reliance on the cited cases is misplaced. The issue in the Porter case, supra, was totally different from the question here. 1 And whether the commerce is properly [339 U.S. 113, 117] characterized as foreign or domestic is, in our view of the case, not material.
The issue is whether this transaction is within the Carmack Amendment. But basically, the problem here is one of liability. The contract giving rise to liability - the bill of lading - is our primary aid in solving that problem. So we turn to the contract to ascertain whether it evidences a transaction within the Carmack Amendment.
Does the fact that the shipment in this case originated in a foreign country take it without the Carmack Amendment? We think not. There was no through bill of lading from Buenos Aires to Boston. The record does not show the slightest privity between respondent and the ocean carrier. The contract for ocean transportation terminated at New Orleans. Having terminated, nothing of it remained for the new, separate, and distinct domestic contract of carriage to "supplement." Even the parties to the ocean bill of lading and the domestic bill of lading were different. If the various parties dealing with this shipment separated the carriage into distinct portions by their contracts, it is not for courts judicially to meld the portions into something they are not. The test is not where the shipment originated, but where the obligation of the carrier as receiving carrier originated. Rice v. Oregon Short Line R. Co., 33 Idaho 565, 198 P. 161; Barrett v. Northern Pacific R. Co. 29 Idaho 139, 157 P. 1016; Baltimore & Ohio R. Co. v. Montgomery & Co., 19 Ga. App. 29, 90 S. E. 740. Thus it is not significant that the shipment in this case originated in a foreign country, since the foreign portion of the journey terminated at the border of the United States. The obligation as receiving carrier originated when respondent issued its original through bill of lading at New Orleans. That contract of carriage was squarely within the provisions of the statute.
The case of Alwine v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 141 Pa. Super. 558, 15 A. 2d 507, much relied upon by respondent [339 U.S. 113, 118] and the Court of Appeals, is not in point. We need not now determine whether that case was correctly decided. For purposes of this case it is sufficient to note that there the Pennsylvania court emphasized that the shipment came into this country on a through bill of lading from Canada. The contract of carriage did not terminate at the border, as in the instant case. Nor does Mexican Light & Power Co. v. Texas Mexican R. Co., 331 U.S. 731 , aid respondent. There an export shipment on a through bill of lading from Pennsylvania to the international boundary, destined for a point in Mexico, was damaged in Mexico. The Texas Mexican Co., the last in a series of carriers handling the shipment in this country, issued a second bill of lading at Laredo, Texas, for the carriage on into Mexico. Recovery was sought against the Texas Mexican Co. as initial (receiving) carrier under the Carmack Amendment. This Court held that it was not a receiving carrier because its duties were controlled by the first bill, and the second bill was without consideration and void. As the dissenting judge below said: "That case rules nothing as to a reverse shipment . . . ." And it could hardly be contended that respondent's domestic bill of lading here was void. As a matter of fact, the shipment in this case could not have moved an inch beyond New Orleans under the ocean bill; and the Carmack Amendment required respondent to issue a through bill of lading for the carriage from New Orleans to Boston.
[ Footnote 1 ] The Court there briefly alluded to the coverage of the Carmack Amendment. But the sole issue in the Porter case was whether federal regulation of bills of lading had covered the field to the exclusion of state regulation of the same subject matter. The Court's discussion of the Carmack Amendment there does not control our decision in this case.
The problem presented by this case is whether a shipment which constitutes an organic transaction in commerce between a non-adjacent foreign country and the continental United States for every other aspect of the Interstate Commerce Act should be treated as such for purposes of 20 (11) of that Act, familiarly known as the Carmack Amendment. 49 U.S.C. 20 (11). Since I agree with the answer given by the Court of Appeals I ought not to join in reversing its decision.

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