Bratton v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
| Decision Date | 11 November 1912 |
| Citation | 150 S.W. 1124,167 Mo.App. 75 |
| Parties | B. A. BRATTON, Respondent, v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellant |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Clinton Circuit Court.--Hon. Alonzo D. Burnes, Judge.
AFFIRMED (conditionally).
Paul E Walker and E. C. Hall for appellant.
Pross. T. Cross for respondent.
--This is an action by a shipper of live stock against a common carrier to recover damages caused by the negligent delay of the carrier in the transportation of the stock to market. A trial of the issues raised by the pleadings resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff in the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars. After unsuccessfully moving for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, defendant appealed.
Plaintiff had 317 sheep which he desired to ship from Lathrop to Kansas City, a distance of about forty miles, for sale on the live stock market conducted in the latter city. He informed defendant's agent of his purpose and on February 6, 1910, was told by the agent to drive the sheep in from his farm the following day and that they would be taken to Kansas City that night. He brought the sheep to defendant's station as directed and was instructed by the agent to place them in defendant's stock pens. He complied with this instruction and the sheep remained in the pens two full days before defendant provided a car for them. There was some further delay after the car was loaded and the shipment did not arrive at its destination until the morning of the third day after its delivery to defendant at the stock pens. Facts and circumstances adduced in the evidence of plaintiff tend to show that the long delay preceding the loading of the sheep into the car was negligent as was the subsequent delay in sending the car forward. Further it appears that the sheep suffered a severe shrinkage in weight caused by their unnecessary and prolonged detention in defendant's pens; that six of them were lost in the course of transportation and that plaintiff incurred extra expense for feed on account of the negligent delay.
The items of damage alleged in the petition are: First, loss on account of depreciation in the value of sheep at the Kansas City market during the period of the unnecessary delay amounting to $ 20.80; second, loss caused by shrinkage in weight, $ 220.80; third, loss occasioned by the failure of defendant to deliver six of the sheep, $ 25.26, and, fourth expense for extra feed, $ 15.
These different elements of damage were submitted in the instructions given the jury at the request of plaintiff. All are supported by substantial evidence except the first. As to that item there is no evidence of any depreciation in the value of the sheep at the Kansas City market and the court erred in submitting such damage to the jury. But defendant is not content with calling our attention to this error. Its counsel insist in their...
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