Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. William Hughes

• Decision Date: 07 December 1903
• Docket Number: No. 56,56
• Citation: 24 S.Ct. 132,191 U.S. 477,48 L.Ed. 268
• Parties: PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. WILLIAM HUGHES and Benjamin F. A. Fleming, Trading as Hughes & Fleming
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

191 U.S. 477

24 S.Ct. 132

48 L.Ed. 268

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v WILLIAM HUGHES and Benjamin F. A. Fleming, Trading as Hughes & Fleming.

No. 56.

Argued November 5, 1903.

Decided December 7, 1903.

The defendants in error brought suit in the court of common pleas of Philadelphia against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, to recover for injuries to a horse shipped by them from Albany in the state of New York to Cynwyd, in the state of Pennsylvania. The shipment was under a bill of lading of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, bearing date of August 10, 1900. It recited the receipt of the horse——'for transportation from _____ to destination, if on the said carrier's line of railroad, otherwise to the place where said live stock is to be received by the connecting carriers for transportation to or toward destination, and that the same has been received by said carrier for itself and on behalf of connecting carriers, for transportation, subject to the official tariffs, classifications and rules of the said company, and upon the following terms and conditions, which are admitted and accepted by the said shipper as just and reasonable, viz.:

'That said shipper, or the consignee, is to pay freight thereon to the said carrier at the rate of ___ per ___, which is the lower published tariff rate, upon the express condition that the carrier assumes liability on the said live stock to the extent only of the following agreed valuation, upon which valuation is based the rate charged for the transportation of the said animals, and beyond which valuation neither the said carrier nor any connecting carrier shall be liable in any event, whether the loss or damage occur through the negligence of the said carrier or connecting carriers, or their employees or otherwise.

'If horses or mules—not exceeding $100 each.'

The through rate of freight was not filled out in the blanks in the shipping receipt or the bill of lading, but was collected by the agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Cynwyd, and it appears was the reduced tariff rate usually charged on such shipments where the limited liability clause above recited is inserted. The shipper signed the bill of lading, which contained the following stipulations:

'Thomas Grady does hereby acknowledge that he had the option of shipping the above described live stock at a higher rate of freight according to the official tariffs, classifications, and rules of the said carrier and connecting carriers, and thereby receiving the security of the liability of the said carrier and connecting railroad and transportation companies, as common carriers of the said live stock, upon their respective roads and lines, but has voluntarily decided to ship the same under this contract at the reduced rate of freight above first mentioned.'

The agreement further provided:

'No carrier shall be liable for loss or damage not occurring on its own road or its portion of the through route, nor after said property is ready for delivery to the next carrier or to consignee. The amount of any loss or damage for which any carrier becomes liable shall be computed at the value of the property at the place and time of shipment under this bill of lading, unless a lower value has been agreed upon or is determined by the classification upon which the rate is based, in either of which events such lower value shall be the maximum price to govern such computation.'

Upon the trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $10,000, and judgment was rendered accordingly. The horse was transported in safety to the end of the line of the receiving carrier, and delivered to the defendant company and injured while the car in which he was shipped was standing on the track of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in the city of Philadelphia, it being run into by heavily laden cars.

Upon appeal to the supreme court of Pennsylvania, the judgment was affirmed. 202 Pa. 222, 51 Atl. 990.

Mr. John G. Johnson for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 480-482 intentionally omitted] Mr. A. S. L. Shields for defendants in error.

Statement by Mr. Justice Day:

[Argument of Counsel from pages 482-484 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

The right to review the judgment of the supreme court of Pennsylvania herein depends upon the proper assertion of a right or privilege under the Federal Constitution or statutes which was denied to the plaintiff in error by the adverse holding of the state court.

Upon the trial in the common pleas court, it was contended that the special contract above recited limited the recovery of the plaintiff to the sum of $100. The court refused to so charge, but holding that the policy and law of Pennsylvania, as declared by her courts of last resort, did not permit such limitations on the liability of common carriers, left to the jury to determine the value of the horse, and the question of the negligence of the defendant.

In view of being carried to the supreme court of Pennsylvania, two errors were assigned to the refusal of the court to charge:

'1. That it was lawful in the state of New York for the carrier to limit its liability by a special contract for an injury resulting from its negligence; that said contract having been for a through consignment from Albany to Cynwyd, a place within this state, said contract must be considered in its entirety, and is incapable of divisibility; that said contract having stipulated for an agreed valuation of the stock shipped, the parties must be governed by its terms throughout the entire route, as said contract must be interpreted and enforced here by the law of the place where it was made, and within which state it was partly performed; and that consequently the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in excess of the valuation agreed upon by the parties at the time of shipment.

'2. That the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in excess of $100.'

Neither of these assignments of error presents a Federal question in such sense as to give this court jurisdiction to review the judgment of the state court under § 709 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 575). Nothing is better settled in Federal jurisprudence than that the jurisdiction of this court in such cases depends upon the assertion of a right, title, privilege, or immunity under the Federal Constitution or laws set up and denied in the state courts. Beals v. Cone, 188 U. S. 184, 47 L. ed. 435, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 275.

The first error assigned in the common pleas court raised the question as to the law of the contract. It does not assert that any Federal right was invaded or denied. It seems to have been conceded at the trial that the law of the state of New York, where the contract was made, permitted the making of a contract limiting the liability of the carrier to the agreed valuation in consideration of the lower freight rate for carriage, the shipper having the opportunity to have the larger liability for the value of the goods if the higher rate of freight for carriage was paid. This rule also prevails in the courts of the United States (Hart v. Pennsylvania R. Co. 112 U. S. 331, 28 L. ed. 717, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 151), wherein it was held that a contract fairly made and signed by the shipper, agreeing on a valuation of the property carried, with a rate of freight based on such valuation, on the condition that the carrier assume liability only to the extent of such agreed valuation in case of loss by the negligence of the carrier, will be upheld as a proper and lawful mode of securing a due proportion between the amount for which the carrier is responsible and the freight received, and of protecting the carrier against extravagant valuations. But this is not a question of Federal law wherein the decision of the highest Federal tribunal is of conclusive authority. In Grogan v. Adams Exp. Co. 114 Pa. 523, 60 Am. Rep. 360, 7 Atl. 134, the supreme court of Pennsylvania expressly declined to follow the rule laid down in Hart v. Pennsylvania R. Co. adhering to its own declared doctrine denying the right of a common carrier to thus limit its liability for injuries resulting from negligence. The cases are numerous and conflicting, different rules prevailing in different states. The Federal courts in cases of which they have jurisdiction will doubtless continue to follow the rule of the Hart Case, but the highest court of Pennsylvania may administer the common law according to its understanding and interpretation of it, being only amenable to review in the Federal Supreme Court where some right, title, immunity, or privilege, the creation of the Federal power, has been asserted and denied. Bethell v. Demaret, 10 Wall. 537, 19 L. ed. 1007; Delmas v. Merchants' Mut. Ins. Co. 14 Wall. 666, 20 L. ed. 759; New York L. Ins. Co. v. Hendren, 92 U. S. 287, 23 L. ed. 709; United States v....