Southern Exp. Co. v. Sinclair

• Decision Date: 24 September 1910
• Citation: 68 S.E. 1113,135 Ga. 155
• Parties: SOUTHERN EXPRESS CO. v. SINCLAIR.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

68 S.E. 1113

135 Ga. 155

SOUTHERN EXPRESS CO. v. SINCLAIR.

Supreme Court of Georgia

September 24, 1910

Syllabus by the Court.

This was an action against a common carrier for the value of lost goods, founded upon a breach of the contract of shipment, and was barred by the statute of limitations.

(a) The suit was not saved from the bar of the statute on account of the dismissal of a similar action, which occurred more than six months prior to the institution of the present action nor by the fact that the present action was instituted within less than six months after the final disposition of a suit in trover in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant for recovery of the same property, in which it was held that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover in trover.

It is unnecessary to deal with other questions presented in the record.

Error from Superior Court, Richmond County; H. C. Hammond, Judge.

Action by Thomas Sinclair against the Southern Express Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

W. K Miller, for plaintiff in error.

C. H. & R. S. Cohen, for defendant in error.

ATKINSON J.

A number of questions are presented by the record; but, under the view we take of the case, it is unnecessary to deal with but one. The action was for the value of a trunk and its contents, which was received by the Southern Express Company on March 23, 1904, to be forwarded to New York. It was carried to Washington City, and there delivered to the Adams Express Company, which undertook to deliver it to the person to whom it was addressed in New York. It reached New York on the 25th of March, 1904, and, on account of the failure to deliver it to the addressee on that date, it was stored in the office of the Adams Express Company. On the morning of March 26, 1904, the office was burned, and the trunk destroyed by fire. Valuing the trunk and its contents at $380, the plaintiff on May 25, 1908, more than four years from the date of the loss of the trunk, filed suit for the above-stated value as principal, with interest thereon from March 23, 1904.

The action was founded upon the breach of the contract, and being such, was barred. Civ. Code 1895, § 3774; Patterson v. Augusta & Savannah R. Co., 94 Ga. 140, 21 S.E. 283; Palmer v. Southern Express Co., 52 Ga. 240. This was the third action which the plaintiff had instituted. The first was one of a similar character, filed July...