The Chicago v. Erickson

• Decision Date: 31 January 1879
• Citation: 91 Ill. 613,1879 WL 8459,33 Am.Rep. 70
• Parties: THE CHICAGO AND ALTON RAILROAD CO.v.CHARLES H. ERICKSON, use, etc.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

91 Ill. 613

1879 WL 8459 (Ill.)

33 Am.Rep. 70

THE CHICAGO AND ALTON RAILROAD CO.

v.CHARLES H. ERICKSON, use, etc.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

January Term, 1879.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Sangamon county; the Hon. CHARLES S. ZANE, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. HAY, GREENE & LITTLER, for the appellant.

Messrs. SCHOLES & MATHER, for the appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE SCHOLFIELD delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was an action on the case, by appellee, against appellant, in the circuit court of Sangamon county, for damages sustained by appellee in consequence of appellant's failure, as a common carrier, to promptly receive and transport 42 head of cattle from Venice station, near St. Louis, to Springfield, Illinois.

The following statement, taken from the brief of the counsel for appellant, sufficiently presents the material facts:

“On the afternoon of Thursday, the 27th day of May, 1875, the cattle in question were brought across the Mississippi river at the upper or Madison county ferry, above St. Louis, in the cars of the Kansas City and Northern Railroad Company, and on the transfer boats of the ferry. They were landed at Venice, a station of the Chicago and Alton railroad, situated at the terminus of the ferry. While the cattle were yet in the cars of the Kansas City and Northern Railroad Company, the young man in charge (Erickson, plaintiff,) offered the cattle to the station agent of defendant below, for shipment to Springfield, Illinois. The agent of defendant declined to receive and ship the cattle, assigning as reasons that they were Cherokee cattle, and that, under the instructions of his superior officers, he could not receive them. This agent, however, referred the matter to his immediate superior, Mr. Lake, whose headquarters were at East St. Louis. Lake was telegraphed to come to Venice the same afternoon, but did not receive the dispatch till the next day. In the meantime the cattle were unloaded in the yards of the National Stock Yards Company, on the Illinois side of the river. The next morning Mr. Lake went to Venice, and after looking at the cattle and talking with Erickson about them, declined to receive them, for the same reasons given by the local agent, Nesbitt. Whereupon the cattle were taken back across the river and put into the Union Stock Yards, where they remained until the following Monday afternoon. On that afternoon the agents of the railroad company, under special instructions telegraphed from their superior officers in Chicago, forwarded the cattle to Springfield.”

The damages claimed are such as resulted from the deterioration of the cattle between the time when they were offered for shipment and the time when they were received and shipped.

That appellant was bound to receive and carry the cattle, when they were first offered for shipment, unless it had a reasonable excuse for its refusal, is conceded by appellant's counsel; but they contend that it had such reasonable excuse for its refusal. They insist that the evidence shows that these cattle were “Texas or Cherokee cattle,” and that, under the circumstances in proof, appellant was justified, by the provisions of the act in relation to “Texas or Cherokee cattle,” (Rev. Stat. 1874, pp....