St Louis Ry Co v. Knight

• Citation: 30 L.Ed. 1077,7 S.Ct. 1132,122 U.S. 79
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. KNIGHT and another
• Decision Date: 23 May 1887
• Court: United States Supreme Court

122 U.S. 79

7 S.Ct. 1132

30 L.Ed. 1077

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. KNIGHT and another.

May 23, 1887.

John T. Dillon, for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 80 intentionally omitted] Julius Rosenthal and A. M. Penc

, for defendants in error.

MATTHEWS, J.

This is an action of assumpsit brought by the defendants in error against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, in the superior court of Cook county, Illinois, and removed into the circuit court of the United States for the Northern district of Illinois by the defendant below, the parties being citizens of different states. The declaration set out several similar causes of action in different counts against the railway company as a common carrier, in one of which it was alleged that the defendant, having received from one G. T. Potter a large number of bales of cotton, described in a certain bill of lading acknowledging receipt thereof, thereby agreed safely to carry the same from Texarkana, in the state of Arkansas, to St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, and thence to Woonsocket, in the state of Rhode Island; and avers that, in violation of its promise and duty, and by reason of its negligence, the said goods became and were wholly lost. The plaintiffs below sued as purchasers of the cotton from Potter, and assignees of the bills of lading. The bills of lading sued upon were similar in their tenor, except as to the description of the articles named therein, and commenced as follows: 'Received from G. T. Potter the following packages, contents unknown, in apparent good order, marked and numbered as per margin, to be transported from Texarkana, Ark., to St. Louis, and delivered to the consignee or a connecting common carrier.' A specimen of what was contained on the margin is as follows:

'Marked. List of Articles. Weight.

'[P P] . . . Seventy-four bales cotton, adv. ch'g's $111.00 . . . 35,964

'Order shipper notify——

B. B. & R. KNIGHT,

'Deliver cotton Woonsocket, R. I.

Providence, R. I.'

Some of the bills of lading specified that the goods were to be transported from Texarkana to Providence, Rhode Island, to be forwarded from St. Louis to destination. The whole number of bales in controversy is 525. To the declaration the defendant filed a plea of the general issue, which was not verified.

The ground of the complaint on the part of the plaintiffs was, not that they did not receive the whole number of bales called for by the bills of lading, but that, as to the 525 bales in controversy, they were not of the grade and quality designated by the marks contained in the bills of lading. By reason of this difference in quality, on the arrival of the cotton at destination, the plaintiffs refused to receive the same, and, after notice to the defendant, caused the same to be sold for its account. The amount claimed was the loss thereby incurred. The cause was tried by a jury, and a verdict and judgment rendered for the plaintiffs for $11,808.51. A bill of exceptions, duly taken, sets out the entire evidence given on the trial, and the charge of the court to the jury, with the exceptions taken by the plaintiff in error.

The court below in its charge to the jury gave in outline a statement of the main features of the case sufficient for present purposes, as follows:

'The proof tends to show that Potter was a cotton broker at Texarkana, Arkansas, in the fall of 1879, and winter following; that he bought most of his cotton at points in Texas on the lines of railroads running south and south-west and west from Texarkana, and that it was brought to Texarkana by these railroads, and there delivered upon the platform of what is known in the testimony as the Cotton Compress Company; that this compress company was a corporation whose business it was to compress cotton, and that all the cotton bought by Potter and delivered at Texarkana was to be there compressed before it was shipped east and north by the defendant. This compress company had a large warehouse, where cotton was stored until it could be compressed and made ready for shipment.

'The testimony tends to show the course of business to have been this: Cotton was bought by Potter, and delivered into the compress house. It was there weighed, classed, or graded by Potter, and marks put upon each bale indicating the grade or quality of the cotton, and the lot to which it belonged. When Potter had so weighed, graded, and marked a number of bales, he made out a bill of lading, describing certain bales of cotton by the marks on the bales; had the superintendent of the compress company warehouse certify to the fact that the cotton called for by these bills of lading was in the warehouse; and the bills of lading thus certified to by the letters 'OK' and the signature of Martin, the superintendent of the compress warehouse, were sin ed by O'Connor, the freight agent of the defendant at Texarkana. Potter then drew drafts on the persons to whom he had sold cotton of the grade called for by these bills of lading, attached these bills of lading to the drafts, and some local bank at Texarkana or some of the adjacent towns or cities cashed these drafts, and they went forward to some correspondent of such bank for collection, and in due course of mail, and long before the actual arrival of the cotton, the drafts were paid; and this seems, from the proof, to have been the course of business between the plaintiffs and Potter. There is also testimony in the case, given by Potter himself, which tends to show that the bills of lading were issued upon cotton before it had been received into the warehouse, upon some understanding or agreement between Potter and O'Connor that they should be so issued, and that Potter would afterwards put the cotton to respond to those bills of lading into the warehouse.

'It is conceded that the defendant, and it is in fact provided in the bills of lading that the defendant, the railroad company, should compress this cotton before shipping to the north or east, and that the expense of compressing was paid by the defendant out of its charges for transportation; that some time necessarily elapsed between the arrival of the cotton in the compress warehouse and the time when it was compressed and made ready for shipment. Especially was this so in the fall and early part of the winter, when there was a large rush on cotton, and it was impossible to compress and handle the cotton as fast as it came in. The cotton, therefore, accumulated in large quantities in the compress-house, awaiting compression, and getting ready for shipment. And there is also proof in the case tending to show that when it was ready for shipment it was turned out onto what was known as the loading platform, and was there shipped to such consignees as Potter directed that is, bills of lading having been given to various persons, Potter directed to whom he would have each lot, as it was turned out ready for shipment, sent or forwarded.

'The controversy in this case is wholly in regard to 525 bales of cotton covered by the eight bills of lading offered in evidence in this case. These bills of lading, as you will remember, covered a large amount of other cotton which it is conceded was received in due course of business, and answered to the marks of quality which were upon the bales; but it is claimed on the part of the plaintiffs that 525 bales of the whole number of bales covered by the bills of lading were not of the quality called for by these bills of lading, and this suit is wholly in regard to those. The plaintiffs claim that, on or about the ninth of April, 1880, there still remained unshipped from Texarkana, and in the compress warehouse, 525 bales of this cotton, for which they held bills of lading; that on or about the ninth of April, there remained in the compress-house about 800 bales of cotton of of an inferior grade to that indicated by the marks on the cotton called for by these bills of lading; and that certain employes of Potter, as plaintiffs insist, with the knowledge of O'Connor, the defendant's freight agent, re-marked this cotton with marks indicating the grade or quality called for by the bills of lading; and the defendant forwarded this inferior cotton to the plaintiffs instead of the actual quality called for by these bills of lading. The plaintiffs' proof also tends to show that when this inferior cotton arrived at its destination, Providence, Rhode Island, plaintiffs declined to accept it, caused it to be put into an auction-house, and sold for the benefit of whom it might concern, notified the defendant of what they had done before this sale took place, giving the defendant opportunity to reclaim and take the cotton if it saw fit, and dispose of it itself; and this suit is now brought to recover the difference between the proceeds of this inferior cotton, as the plan tiffs claim, and the drafts and freight they have paid.'

It is not denied that the railroad company delivered to the plaintiffs below the whole number of bales of cotton mentioned in the bills of lading, with external marks thereon as called for, and that no change was made in the cotton, or in the marking thereof, after it was loaded on the cars for transportation to Texarkana, and that no damage or loss was occasioned by reason of any want of care or diligence in the transportation. The bill of lading contains no warranty that the goods described shall answer any particular quality; on the contrary, it expressly specifies that the contents of the packages are unknown. That a bill of lading in such cases does not operate as such a guaranty appears from the case of Clark v. Barnwell, 12 How. 272, where Mr. Justice NELSON, delivering the opinion of the court, (page 283,) said: 'It is obvious, therefore, that the acknowledgment of the master as to the condition of the goods when received on board extended only to the external condition of the cases, excluding any implication as to the quantity...