Lyon v. Boston & M.R.R.

• Decision Date: 03 November 1927
• Citation: 261 Mass. 251,158 N.E. 663
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: LYON et al. v. BOSTON & M. R. R.

261 Mass. 251

158 N.E. 663

LYON et al.

v.BOSTON & M. R. R.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Worcester.

Nov. 3, 1927.

Report from Superior Court, Worcester County; J. D. McLaughlin, Judge.

Action of contract by Abraham Lyon and others against the Boston & Maine Railroad to recover for damages to a carload of herring. Finding for defendant, and case reported. Judgment for defendant.Stobbs, Hartwell & Stockwell, of Worcester, for plaintiffs.

C. M. Thayer, of Worcester, for defendant.

CARROLL, J.

This action of contract is to recover for damages to a carload of herring.

The auditor found that the plaintiffs purchased three hundred and sixty-five half barrels of pickled herring at Seattle, Wash.; that these were placed in a car of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company consigned by the seller to his own order at Boston, and the bill of lading in standard form sent to the plaintiffs; that the route was via the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the Boston & Maine Railroad; that one of the conditions of the bill of lading was to ‘re-ice at all regular icing stations, using 5 per cent. salt’; that the car containing the herring left Seattle, August 16, 1922, and arrived in Boston on August 30, 1922. It was further found that there were fourteen regular icing stations between Seattle and Boston; that when the fish arrived in Boston it was spoiled and not in merchantable condition; that when shipped from Seattle the fish was in good merchantable condition and if the car bunkers had been kept at least one-half full of ice during the entire trip it would not have been spoiled; that at the regular icing stations of the Northern Pacific Railroad the car was properly iced, the last icing station on that railroad being at Auburn, Wash., where 4,000 pounds of ice and 200 pounds of salt were added; that the next regular icing station was on the Canadian Pacific Railroad at North Bend, British Columbia, two hundred and twenty-four miles from Auburn; that no icing was done at North Bend, and the first icing done by the Canadian Pacific Railroad was at Revelstoke on August 19, 1922, a distance of 250 miles from North Bend and 474 from Auburn; that when the car arrived at Revelstoke the bunkers were only one-third filled with ice; that at other icing stations of the Canadian Pacific Railroad after departing from Revelstoke the car was iced; that the first and only icing station on the route over the defendant's line was Newport, Vt., where 3,000 pounds of ice and 150 pounds of salt were placed in the bunkers. The auditor further found that the herring was spoiled on the trip from Auburn to Revelstoke by reason of the failure of the Canadian Pacific Railroad to ice the car at North Bend, and that nothing could be done by the defendant at Newport when it received the car to remedy the condition; that proper icing was done at Newport and no further damage was done to the fish between Newport and Boston.

The plaintiffs seek to hold the defendant liable for the damage as the delivering carrier of the shipment. In the superior court the case was heard on the auditor's report; it was held that the plaintiffs could not recover, and the case was reported to the Supreme Judicial Court.

[1][2][3][4][5][6] When goods are shipped over connecting lines and arrive at their destination in a damaged condition there is a presumption that the damage was caused by the last carrier. This is so under the federal law, by which the rights of the parties are to be determined as the shipment was moving in interstate commerce. The same rule has been adopted in other jurisdictions. Chicago & Northwestern Railway v. C. C. Whitnack Produce Co., 258 U. S. 369, 371, 372, 42 S. Ct. 328, 66 L. Ed. 665;Northern Industrial Chemical Co. v. Director General of Railroads, 249 Mass....