American Airlines, Inc. v. Miller, A-8503
| Decision Date | 09 May 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. A-8503,A-8503 |
| Parties | AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC., Petitioner, v. John L. MILLER and Fay Miller, doing business as Centex Turkey Hatchery, Respondents. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Buck & Buck, by Robert P. Clines, Fort Worth, for American Airlines, Inc.
Lawrence L. Bruhl, Llano, L. Hamilton Lowe, Austin, for John L. Miller.
Arthur P. Bagby and John C. Foshee, Austin, for Railway Express Agency, Inc.
Respondents John L. Miller and Fay Miller, doing business as Centex Turkey Hatchery, sued petitioner, American Airlines, Inc., and respondent Railway Express Agency to recover damages sustained to a shipment of 3,000 turkey poults. In a suit before the trial court judgment was rendered for respondents John L. Miller and Fay Miller against American Airlines, Inc., and Railway Express Agency jointly and severally in the amount of $1010.90. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed as to the judgment against American Airlines, Inc., and reversed and rendered as to Railway Express Agency. 346 S.W.2d 905. American Airlines, Inc. and the Millers filed applications for writ of error.
The Millers delivered the poults to American in Fort Worth at 8:40 p.m., April 22, 1957, for shipment to the Idaho Poultry Company at Boise, Idaho. At the time American received the poults it issued to the Millers an air-freight uniform air bill reciting:
NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE
American carried the poults to Los Angeles, California, where they were delivered to The Flying Tiger Line, Inc., another air carrier, not a party to this suit, at 7:58 a.m. on April 23, 1957. The Flying Tiger Line, Inc., carried the poults to Portland, Oregon, where they were delivered to Railway Express at about 6:30 or 7:30 a.m. April 25. Railway Express took the poults by train to Huntington, Oregon, 387 miles distant, and from there Railway Express took them by truck to Boise, one hundred miles distant.
Within approximately forty-five minutes after the poults were delivered to Railway Express one of its employees said his attention was called to the shipment by the odor from them, and that upon opening the boxes he found lots of the turkey poults already dead and many were in a dying condition. About 1838 poults died before delivery and 600 afterwards.
Plaintiffs' expert witness testified that in his opinion the cause of the death of the poults was that "they could have either been too hot or too cold, either one--too hot or too cold * * * or they could have been on the road too long." He further testified that if the poults had died and were dying in large quantities at the time the Railway Express received them it would indicate that the cause of their death occurred before that time. The trial court found from the evidence that turkey poults are endowed by nature to live without food or water for seventy-two hours after hatching.
In holding American Airlines liable the Court of Civil Appeals said that American contracted for transportation of the turkeys beyond Los Angeles and elected to treat connecting carriers as its agents. With this we cannot agree.
The Court of Civil Appeals correctly held that petitioner is subject to the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 as amended, and was required to file its tariff with the Civil Aeronautics Board. 49 U.S.C.A. Sec. 483. As is recited in the air-freight uniform air bill, this tariff became a part of the contract between shipper and carrier. The tariff of American Airlines was introduced in evidence, and contains the following:
"The carrier shall not be liable for loss, damage, deterioration, destruction, theft, delay, default, misdelivery, non-delivery or any other result not caused by the actual negligence of itself, its agents, or employees, acting within the scope of their authority, or not occurring on its own line or in its own service or for any act, default, negligence, failure or omission of any other carrier or any other transportation organization."
This tariff shows The Flying Tiger Line, Inc., is another carrier adopting the same tariff.
The Court of Civil Appeals, while recognizing the tariff as part of the contract, says that this does not help American Airlines for the reason that when American carried the poults to Los Angeles and there delivered them to The Flying Tiger Line, Inc., for delivery to Railway Express at Portland it adopted The Flying Tiger Line Inc., as its agent to transport the poults to Portland. It cites ...
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