Court Opinion

ID: 9755507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:40:05.968904+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:08.142671
License: Public Domain

Bbown, C. J.
(dissenting). As appears by the majority opinion, the question decisive of this appeal is whether the court’s conclusion that the plaintiffs’ baggage “was left with the Defendant for safekeeping and not for transportation and, therefore, was not in Interstate Commerce” is supported by the subordinate facts found. I conclude that it is not and that therefore there was error in the judgment as rendered for the named plaintiff.
*284These are the only material facts: The defendant was engaged in interstate commerce in the carriage of passengers for hire. The named plaintiff purchased a ticket for passage upon its trains from Meriden, by way of New Haven, both in Connecticut, to Pall River, in Massachusetts. With suitcase in hand, she boarded the defendant’s train at Meriden at 11:19 a.m. and arrived at New Haven shortly after 11:30 a.m. Upon alighting there on the station platform, she surrendered her suitcase to one of the defendant’s redcaps, with orders that he return it to her “at the train leaving for Fall River on Track No. 8 at 12:40 P.M.” He failed to return it to her “at that time or at any other time.”
In my opinion, the only reasonable conclusion which the court could reach upon these facts was that the plaintiff continued as a passenger of the defendant in interstate commerce during all of the interval between her arrival at the New Haven station and the departure therefrom of the connecting train for Fall River, and that the loss of her suitcase was incident to her status as such a passenger. Franklin v. Southern Pac. Co., 203 Cal. 680, 265 P. 936, cert. denied, 278 U.S. 621, 49 S. Ct. 24, 73 L. Ed. 542; Tilson v. Terminal R. Assn., 236 S.W.2d 42, 45 (St. Louis Ct. App.); see Stopher v. Cincinnati Union Term. Co., 246 I.C.C. 41, 45; Dayton Union Ry. Co. Tariff for Redcap Service, 256 I.C.C. 289; Williams v. Jacksonville Term. Co., 315 U.S. 386, 397, 62 S. Ct. 659, 86 L. Ed. 914. Accordingly, I conclude that the determination by the majority that “[h]er journey, so far as it appears from the facts before us, was intrastate” is unwarranted. It necessarily follows that the defendant’s interstate tariff limits the plaintiff’s right of recovery to $25. This means that there was error and that the case should *285be remanded to the City Conrt of Meriden with direction to enter judgment pursuant to § 7944 of the General Statutes, predicated upon the offer of judgment made by the defendant.
In this opinion Roberts, J., concurred.