Gulf, Colorado Santa Fe Railway Company v. Texas Packing Company

• Decision Date: 07 May 1917
• Docket Number: No. 334,334
• Parties: GULF, COLORADO, & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. TEXAS PACKING COMPANY and Wabash Railroad Company
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

244 U.S. 31

37 S.Ct. 487

61 L.Ed. 970

GULF, COLORADO, & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v TEXAS PACKING COMPANY and Wabash Railroad Company.

No. 334.

Argued and submitted December 6, 1916.

Decided May 7, 1917.

Messrs. Alexander Britton, Gardiner Lathrop, J. W. Terry, Evans Browne, and A. H. Culwell for plaintiff in error.

Messrs.W. O. Cox and Frederick S. Tyler for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant in error, Texas Packing Company, brought its action in the district court of Bell county, Texas, against the Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railway Company, plaintiff in error, to recover damages growing out of a series of shipments of dressed poultry from Temple, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri, but which were re-routed over the line of the Wabash Railroad Company from St. Louis to Chicago. The shipments were on bills of lading, among the terms of which was the following: 'Iced to full capacity at Temple with crushed ice adding 12 per cent salt. Re-ice at all regular icing stations with crushed ice using 12 per cent salt.' The Packing Company in its petition, after averring the necessity of proper icing and the contract to that effect between it and the carrier, alleged negligence on the part of the carriers in failing to re-ice the poultry properly and regularly, as a result of which plaintiff claimed damages in the sum of $12,202.87.

The Santa Fe Company answered, denying the allegations of the petition, and alleging the absence of a contract of carriage from Temple to Chicago, and averred by way of cross petition that, under the terms of the bills of lading, its obligation was to carry the shipments and deliver them within a reasonable length of time to its connecting line, en route to destination, and that it did within a reasonable time carry and safely deliver the shipments in good and proper condition, or in such condition as they were received by it, to its connecting line, the Wabash Railroad Company; that under the terms of the bills of lading, the liability of each carrier was distinctly limited to all such loss and injury as occurred while the shipments were in its possession, and that there was no loss or injury to the shipments while the same were in its possession; that any loss or injury thereto was the result of the negligence of the plaintiff or the Wabash Railroad Company, and that it is not responsible herein for any of the losses or injuries complained of in plaintiff's petition; that the Santa Fe Company, being the initial carrier, was made responsible under the act of Congress for all loss or injur occurring en route, but that, under said act, it is entitled to vouch in the Wabash Railroad Company and recover over and against it for any loss or injury occasioned to the shipments in question through its negligence, and that if there was any negligence of any carrier which resulted in loss to plaintiffs, the same was the negligence of the Wabash Railroad Company.

Accordingly, the Wabash Railroad Company was made a defendant and filed an answer, asserting that it was not a proper party to the suit, and denying that it was guilty of the negligence complained of. It further averred that the shipments were delivered at Chicago in the same condition as when it (the Wabash Company) had received them, and that it received and transported the shipments by virtue of a contract with the plaintiff to which the Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railway Company was not a party or in any way interested, and prayed a dismissal with its costs.

In appears from the record that the shipments were separately billed from Temple, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri, at dates varying from December 24th to December 30th, 1910; that upon January 4th, 1911, the shipper requested the carrier's agent, at Temple, by telephone, to divert the five cars from St. Louis to Chicago; that the agent said he would, asked where the bills of lading were, and upon being told that they were in St. Louis, said that the carrier's representative in St. Louis would perhaps see that the notations of the diversion were made upon the bills; that no new bills were issued, and that thereupon the shipments were continued to Chicago.

Concerning the stipulation as to icing in transit at 'all regular icing stations,' there is testimony tending to show the cars were in fact re-iced en route to St. Louis at all but one regular station,—Shawnee, Oklahoma; but the failure to re-ice at this point resulted in a lapse of from twenty-eight to fifty-four hours without ice and salt.

Upon the issues made the jury found for the Packing Company against the Santa Fe Railway Company, and upon the issue between the Santa Fe and Wabash Companies the verdict was in favor of the Wabash Company. The district court rendered judgment accordingly, and the case was taken to the court of civil appeals, where the judgment of the district court was affirmed. 172 S. W. 195.

As the case involves rights set up and denied which arose upon through bills of lading issued under the Carmack Amendment, it is properly reviewable here. St. Louis I. M. & S. R. Co. v. Starbird, decided April 30, 1917 [243 U. S. 592, 61 L. ed. 917, 37 Sup. Ct. Rep. 462]. Indeed, both parties admit that the Federal statute controls, and the case must be decided under its provisions.

As required by the Texas statute (Rev. Stat. [Tex.] 1911, art. 1639), the court of civil appeals made findings of fact, in which it said:

'The verdict of the jury is amply supported by testimony, and we therefore make findings of fact to the effect that appellant breached its contract of shipment, as alleged in appellee's petition, and that, as a result of that breach, the property which was shipped was injured and damaged to the extent found by the jury; and that the proof failed to show that any of the damage referred...