Ex parte Louisville & N.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 March 1918
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 733
• Citation: 201 Ala. 667,79 So. 139
• Parties: Ex parte LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO. v. LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO. ODEN-ELLIOTT LUMBER CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

79 So. 139

201 Ala. 667

Ex parte LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO.

ODEN-ELLIOTT LUMBER CO. v. LOUISVILLE & N.R. CO.

6 Div. 733

Supreme Court of Alabama

March 23, 1918

On Rehearing, May 9, 1918

Certiorari to Court of Appeals.

Petition for certiorari to review an order of the Court of Appeals (77 So. 240), reversing a judgment for defendant in an action by the Oden-Elliott Lumber Company against the Louisville &amp Nashville Railroad Company. Writ granted.

See also, 78 So. 989.

Tillman Bradley & Morrow and John S. Stone, all of Birmingham, for appellant.

Allen &amp Fisk, of Birmingham, for appellee.

McCLELLAN J.

The Oden-Elliott Lumber Company sued the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company to recover $168.63, overcharge in freight exacted and collected by the railroad company. The trial court, without jury, rendered judgment for the defendant. On appeal the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment and remanded the cause. Oden-Elliott Lumber Co. v. L. & N.R.R. Co., 77 So. 240. The appellee there (petitioner in this court) complains that errors of law underlie the conclusion prevailing with the Court of Appeals. This court is of the opinion that such is the case; and, in consequence, that the writ of certiorari prayed should be granted.

The shipments involved originated at Laurel, Miss., and their destination was Highland Park, Ky., on the defendant railway, within the switching limits of Louisville. The plaintiff bought the several cars of lumber from Eastman, Gardner & Co. at Laurel, Miss., and directed Eastman, Gardner & Co. to ship to Gamble Bros. at Highland Park, Ky.; the plaintiff, the owner of the lumber, having sold it to Gamble Bros., f.o.b. Highland Park, Ky. Gamble Bros. paid the freight charges exacted by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company for transportation of the lumber from Laurel to Highland Park, and deducted that sum from the amount they were due the plaintiff for the lumber. The bills of lading for this lumber were issued by the receiving carrier, the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company, to Eastman, Gardner & Co., Gamble Bros., consignee, and destination Highland Park, Ky. Each bill specified the rate of 19 cents per hundred. No route, between Laurel and Louisville or Highland Park. was expressly defined in the bills of lading, except this: "L. & N. Dely."--a stipulation to be later considered. These shipments were carried by the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company from Laurel to Jackson, Miss.; were there delivered to the Illinois Central Railroad, which transported them to Milan, Tenn., where (Millan) they were delivered by the Illinois Central Railroad Company to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, which carried them to the consignees, on its line, at Highland Park, Ky., and collected freight charges made up of these established (under authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission) rates: 14 cents per hundred from Laurel, Miss., to Milan, Tenn., "by way of the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company to Jackson [[Mississippi] and the Illinois Central Railroad to Milan, Tenn."; and 12 cents per hundred from Milan, Tenn., to Louisville, Ky., by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad--aggregating 26 cents per hundred on the lumber, from Laurel, Miss., to Louisville, Ky., L. & N. Dely.," as against the through rate specified in the bills of lading. There was an established tariff authorizing the imposition by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company of a terminal charge at Louisville of $2 for switching each car "from the tracks of the Illinois Central at Fourteenth street and Ormsby avenue, Louisville, to Gamble Bros." The reference in the bills of lading to "L. & N. Dely." was to this switching charge at Louisville--within the switching limits of which Highland Park was located. The specification of the 19-cent through rate defined the route over which these shipments have moved from Laurel to Louisville, viz. the lines of the Gulf & Ship Island and the Illinois Central to Louisville. According to this record, to that routing only, between those points only, could the through rate have had reference.

It...