Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/91160/atlantic-coast-line-r-co-vs-riverside-mills
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:32:31+00:00

Document:
The general doctrine accepted by this Court in the absence of legislation is that a carrier, unless there be a special contract, is only bound to carry over its own line, and then deliver to a connecting carrier. That such an initial carrier might contract to carry over the whole route was never doubted. It is equally indisputable that, if it does so contract, its common law carrier liability will extend over the entire route. Railway v. McCarthy, 96 U. S. 258 , 96 U. S. 266 ; Railroad v. Pratt, 12 Wall. 123; Railroad v. American Trading Co., 195 U. S. 439 ; Muschamp v. Lancaster Railway Co., 8 M. & W. 421.
The English cases, beginning with Muschamp v. Lancaster Railway Company, 8 M. & W. 421, decided in 1841, down to Bristol &c.; Railway v. Collins, 7 H.L. Cases 194, have consistently held that the mere receipt of property for transportation to a point beyond the line of the receiving carrier, without any qualifying agreement, justified an inference of an agreement for through transportation, and an assumption of full carrier liability by the primary carrier. The ruling is grounded upon considerations of public policy and public convenience, and classes the receipt of goods so designated for a point beyond the carrier line as a holding out to the public that the carrier has made its own arrangements for the continuance by a connecting carrier of the transportation after the goods leave its own line. There are American cases which take the same view of the question of evidence thus presented. Some of them are Railroad v. Campbell, 7 Heisk. 257; Railroad v. Mt. Vernon Co., 84 Ala. 175; Railroad v. Hasselkus, 91 Ga. 384; Beard v. Railroad, 79 Ia. 531; Kyle v. Railroad, 10 Rich. 382; Railroad v. Wilcox, 84 Ill. 240; Railroad v. Rogers & Hartsell, , 6 Heisk. 143.
It must be conceded that the effect of the act in respect of carriers receiving packages in one state for a point in another, and beyond its own lines, is to deny to such an initial carrier the former right to make a contract limiting liability to its own line. This, it is said, is a denial of the liberty of contract secured by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. To support this, counsel cited such cases as Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U. S. 589 ; Lochner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45 , and Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161 .
was upheld. And in Interstate Commerce Commission v. Illinois Central R. Co., 215 U. S. 452 , it was held that the equipment of an interstate railway, including cars used for the transportation of its own fuel, was subject to the regulation of Congress. In Interstate Commerce Commission v. C. & A. Ry. Co., 215 U. S. 479 , it was held to extend to the distribution of coal cars to the shipper, so as to prevent discrimination. In The Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U. S. 463 , power to pass an act which regulated the relation of master and servant, so as to impose on the carrier, while engaged in interstate commerce, liability for the negligence of a fellow servant, for which at common law there was no liability, and depriving such carrier of the common law defense of contributory negligence save by way of reduction of damages, was upheld. In Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, 175 U. S. 211 , and Northern Securities Co. v. United states, 193 U. S. 197 , it was held that this power of regulation extended to and embraced contracts in restraint of trade between the states.
"Unless the regulations are so utterly unreasonable and extravagant in their nature and purpose that the property and personal rights of the citizen are unnecessarily, and in a manner wholly arbitrary, interfered with or destroyed without due process of law, they do not extend beyond the power of the state to pass, and they form no subject for federal interference. As stated in Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86 :"

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