Richmond Co v. Patterson Tobacco Co

• Decision Date: 21 February 1898
• Docket Number: No. 172,172
• Parties: RICHMOND & A. R. CO. et al. v. R. A. PATTERSON TOBACCO CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

169 U.S. 311

18 S.Ct. 335

42 L.Ed. 759

RICHMOND & A. R. CO. et al.

v R. A. PATTERSON TOBACCO CO.

No. 172.

February 21, 1898.

H. T. Wickham, for plaintiff in error.

A. W. Patterson, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.

In August, 1888, the Patterson Tobacco Company delivered to the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad, which was then in the hands of receivers, a lot of tobacco consigned to Mann & Levy, Bayou Sara, La. On receiving the tobacco the railroad issued a bill of lading, whereby it was expressly stipulated that it should only be liable for the transportation of the goods over its own line, and beyond this was to be responsible solely as a forwarder; that is to say, that all its obligations should be discharged if it safely carried the goods over its own road, and delivered them to a connecting carrier. The limitations on this subject in the bill of lading were full and clear, and there is no question that, if the rights of the parties are to be measured by the terms of the bill of lading, the carrier was not liable for a loss happening beyond its line. When this shipment was made there was no law of the state of Virginia forbidding or purporting to forbid a carrier, in receiving goods for interstate shipment, from restricting its liability in accordance with the tenor of the bill of lading in question. In fact the supreme court of appeals of Virginia in this case expressly held that the Virginia law sanctions a contract made by a carrier to that effect. 24 S. E. 261. The bill of lading for the tobacco, issued as above stated, was not signed by the shipper, although at the time the freight was received and when the bill was issued the Code of Virginia contained the following provision:

'When a common carrier accepts for transportation anything directed to a point of destination beyond the terminus of his own line or route, he shall be deemed thereby to assume an obligation for its safe carriage to such point of destination, unless, at the time of such acceptance, such carrier be released or exempted from such liability by contract in writing signed by the owner or his agent; and, although there be such contract in writing, if such thing be lost or injured, such common carrier shall himself be liable therefor, unless, within a reasonable time after demand made, he shall give satisfactory proof to the consignor that the loss or injury did not occur while the thing was in his charge.' Code Va. 1887, § 1295.

The tobacco not having been delivered to the consignees, the shippers sued the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad for the value thereof, on the assumption that the railroad was responsible as a common carrier for the nondelivery. The corporation relied for its defense on the contract embodied in the bill of lading, and on the fact that the tobacco had been duly transferred to a connecting carrier, and was thereafter lost. The case was submitted to the trial court on an agreed statement, admitting the receipt of the goods, the issue of the bill of lading, the fact that it was not signed by the shipper, and the loss of the tobacco beyond the lines of the defendant. The plaintiff rested on the statute above quoted, and the defendant company on its claim that the statute was a regulation of interstate commerce, and therefore in conflict with the constitution of the United States. The trial court held the railroad liable, and from a judgment of the supreme court of appeals of the state of Virginia, affirming its action, this writ of error is prosecuted.

The supreme court of appeals of Virginia in its able opinion, and the counsel of both parties at bar, conceded that an attempt on the part of a state to prohibit a carrier, as to an interstate shipment, from limiting its liability to its own lines, would be a regulation of interstate commerce, and therefore void. We shall therefore not examine this question, but shall proceed to a consideration of the case without expressing any opinion upon it. It is manifest that the statute of the state of Virginia in question does not attempt to substantially regulate or control contracts as to interstate shipments, but simply establishes a rule of evidence ordaining the character of proof by which a carrier may show that, although it received goods for transportation beyond its own line, nevertheless, by...