Detroit & B.C.R. Co. v. McKenzie
| Decision Date | 11 June 1880 |
| Citation | 43 Mich. 609,5 N.W. 1031 |
| Parties | DETROIT & BAY CITY RAILROAD COMPANY v. McKENZIE. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
A railroad company receiving and receipting goods for transportation to a point beyond the terminus of its road, is not to be understood as undertaking to carry the goods beyond such terminus, unless there is an express promise to that effect. But if the company receipts the goods to be transported to a point beyond its line for a definite sum named, and the consignor is charged a larger sum therefor the receipting company is responsible to the consignor for the excess. In an action to recover such excess, a variance in describing the defendant's undertaking, as one for the carriage of the goods for the whole distance, is immaterial. In an action against a carrier, when unreasonable delay is complained of, and the loss of a market is claimed, it is not sufficient for the plaintiff to prove delay, and also a damage, when it appears from his proofs that there was other delay not chargeable to the defendant; but some damage must be traced to the delay for which the defendant was in fault. When unexpected difficulties occur in the transportation of property by a carrier, and the consignor agrees, in view of them, to pay a sum for the carriage in addition to what had been previously fixed upon, and pays the same, he cannot recover it back as paid without consideration.
Error to Lapeer.
J.B Moore, for plaintiff in error.
In this action McKenzie recovered damages of the railroad company, in respect to three several consignments of spars or masts, transported for him over its road. Different questions arise upon the record in respect to each of them and they will therefore be considered separately.
1. The first consignment was of 12 cars of masts or spars from Fish Lake station, for which receipts were given of the following form:
"Detroit & Bay City Railroad Company. Fish Lake Station, August 12, 1873. Received from Jas. McKenzie, in apparent good order, two cars spars, 4612, 6206, marked Jas.
McKenzie, Yarmouth Junction, Maine. Rate paid per car, Fish Lake to Port Huron, $22 per car. Marked and described as above; contents and value otherwise known; for transportation by the Detroit & Bay City Railroad Company to their warehouse at ________. Notice. See rules of transportation on back hereof.
[Signed] "J. KERN, Agent."
Among the rules endorsed on the back was the following:
It is alleged by McKenzie, in the first count of his declaration, that the railroad company undertook to transport these twelve cars of masts or spars from Fish Lake station to Port Huron for the price of $22 per car, but that on their arrival at Port Huron the company demanded and exacted $45 per car. The questions that arise on this count are--First, whether the contract of the company was a contract to carry to Port Huron; and, second, whether there is evidence that the company exacted and received the excessive charges.
Port Huron is not a station on the Detroit & Bay City Railroad but is the connecting point of the Port Huron & Chicago with the Grand Trunk Railway. The Port Huron & Chicago Railway crosses the Detroit & Bay City Railroad at Lapeer, and the line of transportation for these cars would be by the Detroit & Bay City road to Lapeer, and by the Port Huron & Chicago road to Port Huron. The defendant contended, in the court below, that its obligation was only to transport the cars over its own road and deliver them to the connecting road at the point of intersection, and that consequently the undertaking of the defendant was incorrectly set out in the declaration. This is probably...
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