McLendon v. Wabash R. Co.

• Decision Date: 18 June 1906
• Parties: McLENDON v. WABASH R. CO. et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

95 S.W. 943

119 Mo. App. 128

McLENDON v. WABASH R. CO. et al.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

June 18, 1906.

Rehearing Denied July 2, 1906.

1. CARRIERS—CONNECTING CARRIERS—STATUTORY LIABILITY.

In actions under the statute regulating the liability of connecting common carriers, it is not sufficient to absolve the initial carrier from liability for the connecting carrier's negligence that it was agreed that such liability should not exist; it being necessary in addition that the contract should be that the initial carrier would only transport to the end of its own line.

2. SAME—COMMON-LAW LIABILITY.

At common law a carrier, receiving goods for transportation to a point beyond its own line, engages only to carry them to the end of its line and deliver them to the connecting carrier.

3. SAME—FOREIGN CONTRACT OF CARRIAGE.

A contract made in New York for the transportation of fish from New York to Kansas City over the lines of two connecting carriers, expressly stipulating that the fish should be carried by the initial carrier to the end of its own line, and that such carrier should not be responsible for a loss occurring beyond its own line, was valid, and precluded a recovery against the initial carrier for injuries sustained through the negligence of the connecting carrier.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; J. H. Slover. Judge.

Action by J. B. McLendon against the Wabash Railroad Company and another. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Reversed.

Geo. S. Grover, Frank P. Sebree, and John D. Wendorff, for appellants. Lathrop, Morrow, Fox & Moore, for respondent.

ELLISON, J.

The plaintiff began this action before a justice of the peace to recover damages for injury to a shipment of some fish from New York City to Kansas City, Mo. He recovered judgment in the circuit court, and both defendants appealed.

The action is prosecuted against both defendants on the theory that they together form one through line for the shipment of freight from New York to Missouri; neither road, separately, reaching the full distance between the two points. The written contract of shipment was made with the West Shore Company, to which road the freight was delivered in good order and condition. It was shipped over that road, and by it delivered to the Wabash Company, which brought it to Kansas City and delivered it in a spoiled condition to plaintiff. That condition resulted from delay and exposure. The written contract with the West Shore contained two stipulations which bear directly on a vital question in the case. One was that the West Shore only agreed to carry to the end of its own line, and the other was that it was not to be liable for any damage occurring on its road. In actions under the statute of this state in relation to connecting carriers of freight, it was not sufficient to absolve the initial carrier from liability for the connecting carrier's negligence that it was agreed that he should not be liable for negligence of such connecting carrier; for such agreement would be in the face of the statute. It was necessary that the contract should be that the initial carrier would only transport to the end of his own line. Marshall v. Railway Co., 176 Mo. 480, 75 S. W. 688, 98 Am. St. Rep. 508,...