Cote v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co.

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
• Writing for the Court: HOLMES, C.J.
• Citation: Cote v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 182 Mass. 290, 65 N.E. 400 (Mass. 1902)
• Decision Date: 25 November 1902
• Parties: COTE v. NEW YORK, N.H. & H. R. CO.

182 Mass. 290

65 N.E. 400

COTE v. NEW YORK, N.H. & H. R. CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Bristol.

November 25, 1902

COUNSEL

A. Auger, for plaintiff.

F. S Hall, for defendant.

OPINION

HOLMES C.J.

This is an action for damage to freight delivered by the plaintiff to the Boston & Maine Railroad at Lawrence to be carried to New Bedford, and delivered by that road to the defendant for the latter to complete the transportation. The freight was in a sealed car, and it does not appear by which road the damage was done. The case was submitted to the Superior Court on agreed facts with power to draw inferences, and that court ordered judgment for the plaintiff. The defendant appealed rather in the hope that this court might discover some distinction between freight and passenger's baggage than on any articulate reason for supposing one to exist. We have failed to make the discovery. As was pointed out in Moore v. Railroad Co., 173 Mass. 335, 337, 53 N.E. 816, 73 Am. St. Rep. 298, the so-called presumption that the harm was done on the last road, although started as a presumption of fact, has been...