Georgia Pac. Ry. Co. v. Hughart

• Citation: 90 Ala. 36,8 So. 62
• Parties: GEORGIA PAC. RY. CO. v. HUGHART.
• Decision Date: 19 June 1890
• Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

8 So. 62

90 Ala. 36

GEORGIA PAC. RY. CO. v. HUGHART.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 19, 1890

Appeal from circuit court, Jefferson county; JAMES B. HEAD, Judge.

James Weatherly, for appellant.

STONE C.J.

The Georgia Pacific Railway Company, at one of its stations received freight from appellee, with freight charges prepaid, consigned to the shipper at a station on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. To reach its destination, it was necessary for the freight to be transferred from one railroad to the other at Birmingham, Ala. The bill of lading made provision for the transfer, and stipulated that each road should be only liable for losses and injuries suffered while the freight was in its control. This contract under the law required of the receiving road, the Georgia Pacific, that it should safely transport the freight over its line to Birmingham, and there safely deliver it to the Alabama Great Southern; and the burden was on it to prove it had done so. The freight failed to reach its destination. Railroad Co v. Thomas, 83 Ala. 343, 3 South. Rep. 802; Jones v Railway Co., ante, 61. It is not disputed that the freight sued for in this case failed to reach its destination. The bill of lading recites that the goods, when received, were "in outward apparent good order." It also contains this clause: "Release value limited to $5.00 per 100 lbs., case of total loss." An agent of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company testified "that he opened the car containing the goods in the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company's yard, at Birmingham, Ala., four days after the day of the shipment; that the car was sealed and locked at the time he opened it, but that he did not know in what condition this car or its contents had been delivered by the defendant to the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, except that the car was sealed and locked, as above stated, when he opened it; that when he opened said car, he saw the box containing the plaintiff's goods; that the top was off, and the box was on its side, and the contents on the floor of the car; that he put the goods back in the box, nailed the top of the box on, and then forwarded the box and contents to Green Pond, the destination of the goods." The testimony, if believed, proved that the goods sued for were in the box, and the box in outward good order, when it was received by the defendant railroad company, and that the goods failed to reach Green Pond, their destination. The testimony also proves, if believed, that the box had been opened, or had...