The Great Western Ry. Co. of Canada v. Burns

• Decision Date: 30 September 1871
• Citation: 60 Ill. 284,1871 WL 8136
• Parties: THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY OF CANADAv.THOMAS W. BURNS et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

60 Ill. 284

1871 WL 8136 (Ill.)

THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY OF CANADA

v.THOMAS W. BURNS et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September Term, 1871.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. JOSEPH E. GARY, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. WALKER & DEXTER, for the appellant.

Messrs. H. W. & D. K. TENNEY, for the appellees.

Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE LAWRENCE delivered the opinion of the Court:

On the 26th of January, 1865, Burns & Co. delivered to the Michigan Central Railroad Company, at Chicago, two hundred and eighty-three bales of wool, consigned to Boston. On the 2d and 4th of February, the wool was received by the Great Western Railway Company, the appellant, at Detroit, and on the 7th and 8th of the same month forwarded eastward to Hamilton, a point forty-three miles west of its eastern terminus, at Suspension Bridge. It was there unloaded and placed in a warehouse, where it all remained until March 13th, when six bales were forwarded, and on the 3d, 7th and 8th of April, two hundred and seventy-seven bales, comprising the rest of the wool, were sent forward to their destination. In the meantime there had been a great decline in the price of wool, and this suit was brought to recover the damages suffered by the appellees in consequence of this detention.

It appears, from the evidence, that the winter of 1864-5, was one of great severity, and the snow fell to a very unusual depth over the region traversed by the New York Central Railroad, which connects with appellant's road at Suspension Bridge. One of the effects of this kind of weather had been to block up, with snow, the track of the New York Central, and disable its locomotives and cars to such an extent that it was wholly unable to carry all the freight brought over the Great Western. This state of affairs began about the middle of December and continued to the middle of April. When the wool in question was shipped, the means of storage at the eastern terminus of the road had been already exhausted, and the appellant was obliged to unload such freight as the New York Central could not carry, at the stations most convenient for safe-keeping and reshipment, one of which was Hamilton.

It appears, however, the stoppage in the transfer of freight from one road to the other, was not complete. From the 2d of February, when the wool was stored at Hamilton, to the 5th of April, taking that day as the average date of shipment from that point, the New York Central received from the appellant an average of thirty-one loaded cars per diem, amounting in the aggregate to nineteen hundred and twenty-two cars. At the time the wool was delivered to defendant, the accumulation upon its line already amounted to about twelve hundred cars. It thus appears that, during the period when this wool lay in store, the defendant actually transferred to the New York Central an amount of freight equal to about seven hundred cars more than the entire accumulation, at the time the defendant received the wool. A great amount of freight was received by the defendant at Detroit, carried to Suspension Bridge and there delivered to the New York Central, while the appellees' wool was in store at Hamilton.

Upon this state of facts, the jury rightly found a verdict for the appellees.

If there were no other question in the case, we should be much inclined to...