Opinion ID: 771035
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Property Damage Claim

Text: 8 Ms. Opp argues on appeal that the district court erred in granting summary judgment for the carriers on her claim of damages in the amount of $10,000.00--the full value of her property. She asserts that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the carriers satisfied the conditions necessary to limit their liability under the Carmack Amendment. The Carmack Amendment makes carriers who transport goods liable for the actual loss or injury to the property caused by [the receiving or delivering carrier], 49 U.S.C. sec. 14706(a)(1), unless the carrier does the following to limit its liability: (1) maintain an appropriate tariff pursuant to 42 U.S.C. sec. 13710(a)(1), Jackson v. Brook Ledge, Inc., 991 F.Supp. 640, 645 (E.D.Ky. 1997); (2) obtain the shipper's agreement as to her choice of liability; (3) give the shipper a reasonable opportunity to choose between two or more levels of liability; and (4) issue a receipt or bill of lading prior to moving the shipment. Hughes v. United Van Lines, Inc., 829 F.2d 1407, 1415 (7th Cir. 1987); 49 U.S.C. sec. 14706(c)(1)(A). According to Ms. Opp, the district court's decision to grant summary judgment was improper because she never authorized Mr. Opp to sign the bill of lading and limit the carriers' liability, and thus the carriers never obtained her agreement as to her choice of liability. 9 Ms. Opp's property damage claim requires us to apply the principles of agency law to determine whether Mr. Opp had the authority to act as Ms. Opp's agent and limit the carriers' liability when he signed the bill of lading. The district court recognized that [i]t is not clear whether actions arising from the Carmack Amendment are governed by the federal common law of agency, or by the state common law, Opp v. Wheaton Van Lines, Inc., 56 F.Supp.2d 1027, 1035 n. 6 (N.D. Ill. 1999), and it applied Illinois law because federal and Illinois laws of agency both recognize that an agent's authority can be actual or apparent. Id. The parties do not challenge the district court's application of Illinois law, and we will apply it as well. We also note that the Illinois law of agency, as well as the federal common law of agency, accord with the Restatement. See Moriarty v. Glueckert Funeral Home, Ltd., 155 F.3d 859, 865-66 n. 15 (7th Cir. 1998) (the federal courts have relied on the Restatement of Agency as a valuable source for establishing the federal common law of agency); see also National Diamond Syndicate, Inc. v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 897 F.2d 253, 259 (7th Cir. 1990) (the Restatement accords with Illinois agency principles of actual and implied authority); see also Emmenegger Const. Co., Inc. v. King, 431 N.E.2d 738, 742-43 (Ill. App. Ct. 1982) (The law of agency in Illinois is in accord with the Restatement of Agency (Second) on the subject of apparent authority.). 10 An agent's authority may be either actual or apparent, and actual authority may be express or implied. C.A.M. Affiliates, Inc. v. First American Title Ins. Co., 715 N.E.2d 778, 783 (Ill. App. Ct. 1999). And [o]nly the words or conduct of the alleged principal, not the alleged agent, establish the [actual or apparent] authority of an agent. Id. 11 We first note that the record clearly demonstrates that Mr. Opp never received the express authority to represent Ms. Opp and to limit the carriers' liability. An agent has express authority when the principal explicitly grants the agent the authority to perform a particular act. Id. There is no evidence in this case that Ms. Opp explicitly granted authority to Mr. Opp to bind her to an agreement that limited the carriers' liability for her goods. Ms. Opp stated in her affidavit that she never requested or intended Mr. Opp to do anything other than to open the door and allow the movers to remove her property. And the record contains no testimony from Mr. Opp. Because the record provides no counteraffidavits that establish an explicit agency relationship between Ms. and Mr. Opp, we must accept Ms. Opp's affidavit as true and conclude that she never explicitly granted Mr. Opp the authority to limit the carriers' liability. See Lydon v. Eagle Food Centers, Inc., 696 N.E.2d 1211, 1215 (Ill. App. Ct. 1998). 12 We next determine whether Mr. Opp had the implied authority to limit the carriers' liability. Implied authority is actual authority that is implied by facts and circumstances and it may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Wasleff v. Dever, 550 N.E.2d 1132, 1138 (Ill. App. Ct. 1990). [A]n agent has implied authority for the performance or transaction of anything reasonably necessary to effective execution of his express authority. Advance Mortg. Corp. v. Concordia Mut. Life Ass'n, 481 N.E.2d 1025, 1029 (Ill. App. Ct. 1985) (quoting 2A C.J.S. Agency sec. 154 (1972)); see also Restatement (Second) of Agency sec. 35. Thus we must determine whether it was reasonably necessary for Mr. Opp to sign the bill of lading in order to execute his express authority to open the door to give the movers access to Ms. Opp's property. 13 The carriers argue that because Ms. Opp allegedly knew that the bill of lading had to be signed when her property was picked up, but she arranged for Mr. Opp to be the only person present in California for the move, Ms. Opp's request for Mr. Opp to tender the goods to the movers also included the necessary authority for him to sign the bill of lading. But as noted above, Ms. Opp only told Mr. Opp to open the door. She made no request for him to sign anything, or to make any agreement as to the carriers' liability. Ms. Opp also testified that she was never informed that the person releasing her property in California would have to sign a bill of lading and declare a value for her property. Moreover, the record contains no testimony from Mr. Opp at all, and thus it is unclear whether he ever implied from Ms. Opp's request that he was also authorized to limit the carriers' liability, or whether he merely thought that he was signing forms to confirm that Ms. Opp's goods were taken from the home. The record also lacks testimony from any of the movers who picked up Ms. Opp's personal property in California, and we have no indication from them what Mr. Opp understood about the significance of his signature (and alleged notations) on the bill of lading. Thus we conclude that there is insufficient evidence to support a grant of summary judgment for the carriers on this issue. 14 We must then consider whether Mr. Opp had the apparent authority to sign the bill of lading and limit the carriers' liability. Under the doctrine of apparent authority, a principal will be bound not only by the authority that it actually gives to another, but also by the authority that it appears to give. Petrovich v. Share Health Plan of Illinois, Inc., 719 N.E.2d 756, 765 (Ill. 1999). Apparent authority arises when a principal creates, by its words or conduct, the reasonable impression in a third party that the agent has the authority to perform a certain act on its behalf. Weil, Freiburg & Thomas, P.C. v. Sara Lee Corp., 577 N.E.2d 1344, 1350 (Ill. App. Ct. 1991). Thus we must determine whether the evidence demonstrates that Ms. Opp's words or conduct created a reasonable impression in the carriers that Mr. Opp had the authority to sign the bill of lading and limit their liability. 15 The carriers argue that they reasonably believed that Mr. Opp had the authority to sign the bill of lading because Ms. Opp allegedly knew that a bill of lading had to be signed when her goods were picked up, she had arranged for the carriers to contact Mr. Opp to preside at the prior walk- through, and she had also arranged for Mr. Opp to be the only person present at the California home to tender the goods. But material facts in the record also justify a reasonable inference that Mr. Opp did not have the apparent authority to limit the carriers' liability. It is undisputed that Ms. Opp told Kloempken at Soraghan that she wanted the full replacement value of $10,000.00 on her goods, which is reflected on Wheaton's Estimate/Order for Service form. Ms. Opp never designated a lawful representative on the space provided on the estimate form, and thus Wheaton's own form lacked any indication that Mr. Opp was her agent. And when the movers were delayed by a flat tire on their moving truck, they called to notify Ms. Opp in Illinois, not Mr. Opp in California. Additionally, Ms. Opp testified that the carriers never informed her that the person releasing her property in California would have to sign anything, declare any value for her property, or do anything other than to give the movers access to her belongings, which indicates that the carriers could not reasonably conclude that she knew that the bill of lading had to be signed in California, and that Mr. Opp had that authority. And there is no evidence in the record that the carriers had any knowledge that Ms. Opp ever discussed the valuation of her property with Mr. Opp. We conclude, therefore, that summary judgment is precluded because the record provides sufficient evidence to enable a reasonable jury to find that Mr. Opp lacked the apparent authority to limit the carriers' liability. 2 See Roger, 21 F.3d at 149.