Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. Brady

• Citation: 32 Md. 333
• Parties: THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY v. JOHN C. BRADY.
• Decision Date: 10 March 1870
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

32 Md. 333

THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY v. JOHN C. BRADY.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

March 10, 1870

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for Allegany County.

On the 15th of January, 1866, the appellant received at Brady's Mills, to be transported over its road to Baltimore, certain cattle, the property of the appellee. A number of the cattle were killed on the route, and others were injured. This suit was brought by the appellee to recover damages for the loss and injury. The appellant offered in evidence a printed tariff of special rates, under which it assumed no responsibility for loss, damage or delay to stock. This tariff contained the condition that the rates therein specified were to be charged only when the owner of the stock, or the party in charge of them, executed to the company a release of all liability for risks or damage to his stock or person. When no such release was executed, the charge would be made at local first class rates of the general tariff. The appellee was charged for the transportation of his cattle under the tariff of special rates, but executed no release.

Exception: The plaintiff offered three prayers--the Court rejected the third, and granted the first and second which are as follows:

1st. If the jury find from the evidence that the defendant received the plaintiff's cattle, to be carried from Brady's Mills to Baltimore, over its road, and that some of the cattle were killed on the route, and others injured by an accident occurring to the train on which the cattle were being conveyed, then the plaintiff is entitled to recover notwithstanding they shall also believe that the defendant had notice, similar to that offered in evidence, in the station at Brady's Mills, and the plaintiff knew of said notice, and assisted, as owner of the cattle, in putting them on the defendant's cars; provided, they find the plaintiff did not assent to the conditions of said notice nor execute a release thereunder.

2d. If they find the facts stated in the first prayer, the measure of damages is for the cattle killed, the market value at the place of destination at the time when they should be reasonably delivered, and for those injured, the difference between their market value at same time and place if uninjured by the accident, and what the cattle, in their damaged condition, were worth, and such additional expenses as were necessarily imposed on the plaintiff by the injuries caused by the accident.

The defendant offered eight prayers--the seventh and eighth were rejected; the fourth was granted, and the others were granted with modifications. The first and second, as modified by the Court, and the fourth, which alone it is deemed proper to set out, were as follows:

1st. If the jury shall believe, from the evidence in the cause, that the plaintiff, on or about the 15th of January, 1866, in the absence of his father, who was the local agent of the defendant at that point, shipped thirty-two head of cattle from a station on the road of the defendant, called Brady's Mills, by the road of the defendant for Baltimore, and if the jury shall find, from the evidence that the plaintiff is the son of the agent of the defendant at that point, and that the plaintiff shipped the said cattle as his own, and being his own, if the jury shall so find, in the absence of his father, and if the jury shall further find that the plaintiff shipped or carried his cattle under the tariff of special rates offered in evidence by the defendant and that the said tariff of special rates was posted in the depot of the said defendant, and were known to the plaintiff, and if the jury shall further find that the said "special rates" contained the provision that "the above rates to be charged only when the owner of the stock or the party in charge of them, executes to the company a release of all liability for risks or damages to his stock or person; when no such release is executed, the charge will be made at local first-class rates of the general tariff;" and if the jury shall further find that the plaintiff did not pay a higher rate than the special rates in the said tariff of special rates; then, that the plaintiff is just as much bound by said special rates as though he had, at the time of shipping or carrying said stock, signed the said release, and is not entitled to recover in this case, unless the jury...