Ogden Reid v. James Fargo
| Citation | 241 U.S. 544,60 L.Ed. 1156,36 S.Ct. 712 |
| Decision Date | 12 June 1916 |
| Docket Number | No. 279,279 |
| Parties | OGDEN M. REID, Petitioner, v. JAMES C. FARGO, as President of the American Express Company, et al |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. Oscar R. Houston and Howard S. Harrington for petitioner.
Mr. Walter F. Taylor for James C. Fargo.
Messrs. Roscoe H. Hupper and Norman B. Beecher for the International Mercantile Marine Company.
Messrs. Livingston Platt and Frank H. Platt for T. Hogan & Sons.
This controversy thus arose: In December, 1910, Reid, the petitioner, delivered in London to the American Express Company an automobile, to be carried to New York. The Express Company, in a communication concerning the shipment, was informed that the car was worth about $3,900. The car was boxed by the Express Company and by it delivered to the Minnewaska, a steamship belonging to the International Mercantile Marine Company, bound for New York. The Express Company shipped the car in its own name as consignor, to itself in New York as consignee, and no express notice was given to the ship of the real value of the package and its contents. The bill of lading issued by the steamship company expressly limited the liability to $100, and contained the following clause: 'It is also mutually agreed that the value of each package shipped hereunder does not exceed $100, or its equivalent in English currency on which basis the freight is adjusted, and the carrier's liability shall in no case exceed that sum, unless a value in excess thereof be specially declared, and stated herein, and extra freight as may be agreed on paid.' On the arrival of the ship at New York, T. Hogan & Sons, Incorporated, stevedores, were employed to discharge the cargo. A sling was placed around the box containing the car, and a fall, with a hook attached to it, was affixed to the sling, and by a winch the car was lifted up from the hold, through the hatchway. When it had passed above the hatchway, a hook attached to another tackle was fastened to the sling, this second tackle being used to swing the package toward and over the side of the ship, to land it on the pier. This was not accomplished, however, because, as the package swung over the side of the ship, toward the pier, the sling broke, and the car fell into the water, and was seriously damaged.
In November, 1911, Reid filed his libel in the district court of the United States for the southern district of New York, against the Express Company, to recover from it the amount of damage caused to the automobile. Before answering, the Express Company, in conformity to admiralty rule 59, of this court, and with rule 15 in admiralty for the southern district of New York, filed two petitions, one against the steamship company, and the other against Hogan & Sons, to make them parties defendant on the ground that, if there was any liability on the part of the Express Company on the libel of Reid, both the steamship company and Hogan & Sons were responsible therefor, and asking a decree over against each of them separately in case there was any decree against the Express Company. Thereupon the Express Company answered the original libel, denying responsibility on the ground, among others, that it was a mere forwarder. Subsequently both Hogan & Sons and the steamship company answered not only the petitions of the Express Company, making them parties defendant, but also the original libel, traversing the alleged liability on various grounds. The latter company, however, referring to the limitation of liability to $100 in the bill of lading which it had issued, admitted its responsibility to that extent, and alleged that the sum thereof had been offered and declined.
In March, 1913, an interlocutory decree was entered, holding that Hogan & Sons were primarily responsible, and that the Express Company was secondarily so, and that when the amount of the loss was ascertained, Reid would therefore have the right to recover the amount from Hogan & Sons, and in addition to recover from the Express Company any part of the sum which he was unable to collect under execution from Hogan & Sons. The final decree, which thereafter fixed the amount at $2,724.40, carried out the interlocutory decree. Nobody appealed from the interlocutory decree, and the Express Company did not appeal from the final decree, fixing its secondary liability. Hogan & Sons, however, did appeal. The court below, considering that, on the appeal, the case was before it for a trial de novo, and therefore that the rigths and liabilities of all the parties must be considered from that point of view, reversed the decree below, and held that error had been committed in the decree rendered...
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