Southern Advance Bag & Paper Co. v. Terminal R. Ass'n of St. Louis
| Citation | 171 S.W.2d 107 |
| Decision Date | 04 May 1943 |
| Docket Number | 26328 |
| Parties | SOUTHERN ADVANCE BAG & PAPER CO., INC., (Plaintiff) Appellant, v. TERMINAL RAILROAD ASSOCIATION OF ST. LOUIS, BERRYMAN HENWOOD, Trustee of St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co., and THE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, a Corporation, (Defendants) Respondents |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Missouri (US) |
Appeal from Circuit Court, City of St. Louis. Hon. E. M. Ruddy Judge.
AFFIRMED.
This is an action upon the common law liability of railroad freight carriers for failure to deliver a certain shipment of freight to the consignee.
The plaintiff is Southern Advance Bag & Paper Co., Inc., a manufacturer of paper and paper bags, with its main office in Boston, Massachusetts) and its plant in Advance, Louisiana, where the shipment in question had its origin.
The shipment consisted of one carload of paper bags, shipped in good condition in car No. N. P. 20334, and consigned to Hartford & Company, destination, St. Louis, Missouri, route, "Hodge RI Fordyce SSW Cupples Station". Shipment was made on June 9, 1938, under a uniform straight bill of lading issued by North Louisiana & Gulf Railroad Company. At Hodge, Louisiana, the car was transferred to the lines of Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, and by that company in turn transferred to St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, which transported the car to its terminus in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the car was taken over by Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis for delivery to the consignee at Cupples Station in St. Louis, Missouri.
Cupples Station is a railroad freight station owned by Washington University, which, as its name implies, is primarily an institution of higher learning, whatever may be its status as regards the operation of the station.
The evidence discloses that the station consists of a large building with five floors and a basement, and is served by a series of nine tracks or sidings with corresponding platforms for loading and unloading cars. The station tracks in turn connect with those of Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, which companies alone have actual physical access to the station.
Housed in the building are a number of tenants, including Hartford & Company, the consignee of the shipment now in question, which is in the business of selling bags for paper manufacturers. The tenants ship end receive their goods through the station, and all loading and unloading is done by employees of the University, who vary from fifteen to seventy five in number and include, along with those who do the handling of freight, a station agent, as well as whatever clerical force is required for making and keeping the necessary records. All employees are paid by the University, and are strictly its employees, and not those of either the railroads or the tenants of the University whose business is transacted at the station.
Shipments move in both carload and less than carload lots, the only distinction being that in the case of less than carload lots, the railroads pay the University for the loading and unloading, while with carload lots, the freight is either loaded or unloaded for the account of the particular tenant or its agent, the drayage company. In other words, the station is essentially a freight station of the railroads only when it handles less than carload lots, since when carload lots are involved, the railroads have no function to perform save that of making delivery of the cars at the point in the station where they are directed by the station authorities. The general public is not admitted to the station; and according to the evidence in this case, freight is only handled for the tenants, although the former station agent expressed the opinion that "if a car came in for an outsider, we would handle it if he paid for it".
A shipment moving from the station is accompanied by a bill of lading issued over the signature of the station agent; and if delivery is over a railroad, freight charges are collected for the account of the railroad company. In the case of a car coming into the station with merchandise for a tenant, delivery of the car on the tracks is regarded as delivery to the consignee, and the shipment is then unloaded by the University's employees and carted on platform trucks to an elevator, where it is hoisted to the proper floor and actually delivered into the possession of the tenant. Since the station has no rolling stock of its own, all movement or spotting of cars at convenient locations for unloading is performed by Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis; and under the arrangement between the station and such company, the station is entitled to "one spot on a car". However, when a car is once spotted, all further obligation of the Terminal ceases, and the car is then left in the hands of the station to be unloaded in the manner already indicated.
As a matter of fact, at the time of the damage to the shipment involved in this proceeding, Cupples Station was being operated under a written contract which had been executed on August 1, 1935, between the University as the owner of the station and its facilities, and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis acting for and on behalf of some twenty designated trunk line carriers which serve the St. Louis territory. Indeed, it would appear that such contract had been entered into for the express purpose of bringing the operation of the station into conformity with an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in a case which had been argued before the Commission in regard to the justification for a proposed charge by the carriers for loading or unloading carload package freight handled to or from the station. Freight Handling Charges at St. Louis Station, 201 I.C.C. 543.
By the terms of such contract, the University agreed to take over and assume the full operation of the station as a loading and unloading place for less than carload freight consigned to or from the station by each of the twenty trunk line carriers, as well as for loading and unloading carload freight for shippers and consignees. The University further agreed to furnish and maintain, for the benefit of the carriers, such facilities and equipment as were customary in a railroad freight station, and to handle, for the carriers, less than carload freight delivered by, or intended for delivery to, the carriers at the station. However, in the case of carload freight, the University agreed to load and unload the same for the shippers and consignees upon such terms as it might see fit to impose, but without any charge whatever to the carriers for the loading and unloading of carload freight consigned to or from the station.
It was still further provided that Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis should act as the impartial financial agent or clearing house for both the University and the carriers in collecting and paying over to the University certain fixed rentals and agreed compensation for the use of the facilities and services of the University in connection with the loading and unloading of less than carload freight, which, under the preceding portion of the contract, the University had agreed to handle for the carriers.
The car in question was set down in Cupples Station at 6:10 a. m. on Sunday, June 12, 1938, and remained on the track all that day and the ensuing night, until 6:00 o'clock on the morning of Monday, June 13th, when the station employees discovered that its contents were on fire and called upon the Terminal to move the car out of the station so as to avoid any fire damage to the station and to make the car more accessible to the fire department.
The cause of the fire was not explained, unless it was in some...
To continue reading
Request your trial