City of Chillicothe ex rel. Matson v. Raynard

• Decision Date: 31 October 1883
• Citation: 80 Mo. 185
• Parties: THE CITY OF CHILLICOTHE ex rel. MATSON v. RAYNARD et al., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

80 Mo. 185

THE CITY OF CHILLICOTHE ex rel. MATSON

v.RAYNARD et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1883.

Appeal from Livingston Circuit Court.--Trial before J. H. SHANKLIN, ESQ., sitting as Special Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Waters & Wyne for appellants.

R. R. Kitt for respondent.

NORTON, J.

This suit was brought to recover the value of one trunk and contents charged to have been lost by the negligence of the defendant Raynard, who was employed to carry the same from the Wabash depot to the Hannibal depot in the city of Chillicothe.Relator alleged that Raynard was a public porter licensed as such, and gave bond with defendant Swetland as his security, conditioned “that said Raynard should conform to the ordinances of the city of Chillicothe in relation to porters, and safely deliver all articles entrusted to his care to the persons entitled to the same;” that relator delivered to said Raynard a trunk containing articles to the value of $125, to be taken from the Wabash depot and delivered by him to the baggage-man at the Hannibal depot; that he failed to deliver said trunk, and that said trunk and contents have been lost to plaintiff.The answer of defendants denied relator's right to sue on the bond, and averred that relator employed Raynard to transfer his trunk from the Wabash depot to the Hannibal depot, and that said Raynard delivered the same to the baggage-man.On the trial of the cause plaintiff obtained judgment, from which defendants have appealed.

The evidence introduced established the following facts: that defendant Raynard, to whom a license had been issued by the city of Chillicothe as a public porter in said city, and who gave the bond in suit, was hired by relator to transport his trunk from the Wabash depot in said city to the Hannibal depot; that he took charge of the trunk and left it on the platform at the baggage-room door of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad depot, the door of which was at the time locked and the baggage-man absent.Defendant Raynard testified that he received from relator the check for his trunk; that he showed the check to one Cramer, who was the baggage-man of the Hannibal & St. Joseph depot, and told him he had two trunks to be transferred; that Cramer told him to set them down at the baggage-room door, and he would be there in a few minutes and take care of them; that he had to transfer them about 200 yards, and took both trunks and set them on the platform at the baggage-room door, which was locked; that at the time Cramer told him where to put the baggage, he, Cramer, was at his hotel or eating-house across the street, away from the baggage-room, at his own place of business.Two or three witnesses testified that they saw relator's trunk on the platform at the door of the depot with three or four others; that the baggage-room was half open; that the other trunks went on the train.

Upon the state of facts disclosed by the evidence the court gave the following instruction for plaintiff:

1.If the defendant agreed for hire to transfer the trunk in question from the possession and custody of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company to the possession of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, at its depot in Chillicothe, and he failed to deliver the trunk to the baggage-man of said last named company at said depot, the finding ought to be for plaintiff.

The court gave for defendant the following instruction number one, and refused those numbered two, three, four:

1.If defendant Raynard undertook to transfer plaintiff's trunk from the Wabash depot to the Hannibal & St. Joseph depot in Chillicothe on the night in question, and if Raynard, under the direction of the baggage-man of said Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, on duty at its said depot in Chillicothe, placed said baggage at the door of the...