Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/88569/richmond-a-r-co-vs-patterson-tobacco
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 05:05:38+00:00

Document:
Appellant Richmond and A. R. Co.
"when a common carrier accepts for transportation anything, directed to a point of destination beyond the terminus of his own line or route, he shall be deemed thereby to assume an obligation for its safe carriage to such point of destination unless at the time of such acceptance such carrier be released or exempted from such liability by contract in writing signed by the owner or his agent, and, although there be such contract in writing, if such thing be lost or injured, such common carrier shall himself be liable therefor, unless, within a reasonable time after demand made, he shall give satisfactory proof to the consignor that the loss or injury did not occur while the thing was in his charge"
does not attempt to substantially regulate or control contracts as to interstate shipments, but simply establishes a rule of evidence ordaining the character of proof by which a carrier may show that although it received goods for transportation beyond its own line, nevertheless, by agreement, its liability was limited to its own line, and it does not conflict with the provisions of the Constitution of the United States touching interstate commerce.
to the consignor that the loss or injury did not occur while the thing was in his charge."
Sec. 1295, Virginia Code of 1887.
The tobacco not having been delivered to the consignees, the shippers sued the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad for the value thereof on the assumption that the railroad was responsible as a common carrier for the nondelivery. The corporation relied for its defense on the contract embodied in the bill of lading and on the fact that the tobacco had been duly transferred to a connecting carrier and was thereafter lost. The case was submitted to the trial court on an agreed statement, admitting the receipt of the goods, the issue of the bill of lading, the fact that it was not signed by the shipper, and the loss of the tobacco beyond the lines of the defendant. The plaintiff rested on the statute above quoted, and the defendant company on its claim that the statute was a regulation of interstate commerce, and therefore in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. The trial court held the railroad liable, and from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State of Virginia affirming its action this writ of error is prosecuted.
evidence of the contract is in writing and signed by the shipper. The distinction between a law which forbids a contract to be made and one which simply requires the contract when made to be embodied in a particular form is as obvious as is the difference between the sum of the obligations of a contract and the mere instrument by which their existence may be manifested. The contract is the concrete result of the meeting of the minds of the contracting parties. The evidence thereof is but the instrument by which the fact that the will of the parties did meet is shown.
its own line resulted, it is true, from the statute, but not because the statute forbade the carrier from contracting so as to limit his liability, but because the contract which he did make was not in the form required by law, and therefore was not evidence that there was such a contract. Indeed, the entire argument upon which it is asserted that error was committed by the court below but manifests in varying forms of statement the fallacy already noticed -- that is, it comes from obscuring the difference between substance and form, between a power to contract and the asserted right, in availing of the authority, to disregard the requisites essential to show a valid contract -- and this confusion of thought also marks the difference between the case now presented and the very many adjudged cases cited by the plaintiff in error in support of its proposition.
examination by a local board as to their fitness for their positions, or to prescribe the mode of heating passenger cars in such trains. Smith v. Alabama, 124 U. S. 465 ; Nashville &c.; Railway v. Alabama, 128 U. S. 96 ; New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad v. New York, 165 U. S. 628 . See also Western Union Telegraph Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650 ; Hennington v. Georgia, 163 U. S. 299 ; Gladson v. Minnesota, 166 U. S. 427 ."
These views dispose of the substantial questions which the case presents, for the contention which arises on the concluding sentences of the statute, imposing upon a carrier a duty, where the loss has not happened on the carrier's own line, to inform the shipper of this fact, is but a regulation manifestly within the power of the state to adopt.

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