San Antonio, U. & G. Ry. Co. v. Nast

• Decision Date: 22 March 1922
• Docket Number: (No. 6712.)
• Citation: 240 S.W. 596
• Parties: SAN ANTONIO, U. & G. RY. CO. v. NAST.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 596

240 S.W. 596

SAN ANTONIO, U. & G. RY. CO. v. NAST.^*

(No. 6712.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. San Antonio.

March 22, 1922.

Rehearing Denied April 19, 1922.

Appeal from District Court, Nueces County; W. B. Hopkins, Judge.

Action by Jerome Nast against the San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions to render judgment for only the amount tendered by defendant.

Kleberg, Stayton & North, of Corpus Christi, for appellant.

J. C. Scott, of Corpus Christi, for appellee.

FLY, C. J.

This is a suit for $1,060, the value of a trunk and its contents, instituted by appellee against appellant. Upon the answers to special issues submitted to a jury, judgment was rendered against appellant for $1,060.

The facts are that appellee's wife purchased a railroad ticket from Pittsburgh, Pa., to San Antonio, and had her trunk checked to San Antonio. After reaching San Antonio, she bought a ticket over appellant's line to Corpus Christi and had her trunk checked to the last-named place, without declaring its value. She was in San Antonio only a short time and surrendered her trunk check to an agent of appellant who gave her a check to Corpus Christi. Her trunk was not delivered and she has never seen it since it was checked by her in Pittsburgh. Appellant resisted payment of more than $100 for the trunk and contents, on the ground that the shipment of the trunk was interstate commerce, and the value not declared, and the shipment was governed by the provisions of Baggage Tariff Rule 10 of the United States Railway Administration.

Appellant's line of railway was, at the time that the trunk was shipped and lost, in the custody of the United States and subject to the orders of the President. Under the rules issued by authority of the United States Railway Administration, each adult passenger could check, free of charge, 150 pounds of baggage not exceeding $100, and, unless a greater sum is declared by the passenger and charges paid for excess value at time of delivery to the carrier, no claim for a greater sum than $100 would be entertained. Under Acts August 29, 1916 (U. S. Comp. St. § 1974a), and March 21, 1918 (U. S. Comp. St. 1918, U. S. Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 3115¾a-3115¾p), the president of the United States was given the power to initiate railway rates by filing the same with the Interstate Commerce Commission, and those acts applied to intrastate shipments and superseded, during the existence of the World War, all state laws conflicting with them. Not only did the regulations as to baggage, promulgated by the Railway Administration, set aside any state laws in conflict with them, but they were binding upon all passengers, interstate or intrastate, regardless of the passenger's lack of knowledge of the regulations or the failure of the...