Beadle v. The Kansas City

• Citation: 29 P. 696,48 Kan. 379
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Kansas
• Decision Date: 01 January 1892
• Parties: C. S. BEADLE v. THE KANSAS CITY, FORT SCOTT & MEMPHIS RAILROAD COMPANY

29 P. 696

48 Kan. 379

C. S. BEADLE v. THE KANSAS CITY, FORT SCOTT & MEMPHIS RAILROAD COMPANY

Supreme Court of Kansas

January 1, 1892

Error from Bourbon District Court.

ACTION by Beadle against the Railroad Company. From a judgment for defendant, on demurrer to the petition, January 6, 1889 plaintiff brings error.

Judgment affirmed.

E. F Ware, for plaintiff in error.

Wallace Pratt, and Chas. W. Blair, for defendant in error.

SIMPSON C. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

SIMPSON, C.:

Beadle commenced this action against the railroad company on the 27th day of March, 1888. His petition contained 613 causes of action. He claims as assignee of the firm of Beadle & Henning. The first cause of action as originally filed, (and it differs from the others only in date, amount, and locality,) reads as follows:

"On or about the 14th day of July, 1885, at Cherokee, in the county of Crawford, Kansas, the said firm of Beadle & Henning did deliver to the defendant 33,400 pounds of coal, all loaded on one car and consigned to J. S. Watson, at Emporia, in the state of Kansas, to be by the defendant transported to the station of Girard, on its line of road. The defendant did receive and transport said coal to said station, but charged and collected of the said firm, through its consignee, as a condition precedent to said service and the delivery of said coal, a charge of $ 8.25, when at the same time the rate charged by the defendant for similar service to the Keith & Perry Coal Company and others was only $ 5.01, which last sum was a maximum reasonable rate, thereby overcharging the said firm, unlawfully and unjustly, the sum of $ 3.24. The said defendant has not repaid said overcharge or any part thereof, although due demand therefor has been made. Wherefore, plaintiff asks judgment for three times said sum, to wit, $ 9.72, as provided by law, with interest thereon at 7 per cent. per annum from said last-mentioned date."

A demurrer was interposed to all the causes of action set up in this petition, and it was sustained. The petition was then amended, by striking out the demand for triple damages, and asking only for actual damages alleged to have been sustained. The first count of the amended petition reads as follows:

"On or about the 14th day of July, 1885, at Cherokee, in the county of Crawford, Kansas, the said firm of Beadle & Henning did deliver to the defendant 33,400 pounds of coal, all loaded on one car and consigned to J. S. Watson, at Emporia, in the state of Kansas, to be by the defendant transported to the station of Girard, on its line of road. The defendant did receive and transport said coal to said station, but charged and collected of the said firm, through its consignee, as a condition precedent to said service and the delivery of said coal, a charge of $ 8.25, when at the same time the rate charged by the defendant to the Keith & Perry Coal Company and others was only $ 5.01, which last sum was a maximum reasonable rate, thereby overcharging the said firm, unlawfully and unjustly, the sum of $ 3.24. The said defendant has not repaid said overcharge or any part thereof, although due demand has been made. Wherefore, plaintiff asks judgment for said sum, with interest thereon at 7 per cent. per annum from said last-mentioned date."

To this amended petition a demurrer was filed and sustained, and the case brought here to review the ruling of the trial court on the dem...