The Ill. Cent. R.R. Co. v. Morrison

• Citation: 9 Peck 136,1857 WL 5673,19 Ill. 136
• Parties: THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant,v.DAVID A. MORRISON and JOHN CRABTREE, Appellees.
• Decision Date: 31 December 1857
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

19 Ill. 136
1857 WL 5673 (Ill.)
9 Peck (IL) 136

THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant,
v.
DAVID A. MORRISON and JOHN CRABTREE, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

December Term, 1857.

APPEAL FROM COLES.

Railroad companies are common carriers, and, as such, have a right to restrict their liability, by such contracts as may be specially agreed upon, they still remaining liable for gross negligence or willful misfeasance.

Where A contracted to pay a certain price for cars to carry four hundred cattle, and delivered a part, signing a contract restricting the liability of the company, it will be presumed that other persons, who delivered the remainder of the cattle, acted as his agents, and had authority to sign similar contracts.

THIS was an action on the case, brought by the appellees against the appellant, as common carriers, in the court below, for damage done to cattle of appellees, by delay in the transit while being carried from Urbana to Chicago, by appellant. The declaration also contained a count in trover. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and gave notice of special matters to be relied on for the defense, and the case was submitted to a jury.

The evidence showed that shortly prior to November 10, 1856, the plaintiff, Morrison, made a special contract with the defendant to furnish cars sufficient to ship about four hundred cattle from Urbana to Chicago, on defendant's railroad; that by the terms of the contract, defendant was to furnish cars at reduced rates, and plaintiff, Morrison, was to pay $33 per car, and sign the usual release against risks, delays, &c.; that Morrison did not, at that or any other time, disclose to defendant that said cattle, or any portion of them, were owned by him in partnership with his co-plaintiff, Crabtree, or by any one else, but contracted in his individual name for said cars; that on November 10th, 1856, at noon, a lot of the plaintiff Morrison's individual cattle, and two hundred and fifty-six of the cattle belonging to the plaintiff Morrison and the plaintiff Crabtree, in partnership, arrived at Urbana, having been driven there together; that all of Morrison's individual cattle and about eighty head of the partnership lot were loaded and sent off that same night, and the rest, one hundred and seventy-six head, were loaded that night and the next morning in eleven cars, the most of which were box cars, and started to Chicago on the afternoon of the 11th; arrived at Onarga, forty miles from Urbana, one hour before sundown the same day; some of the cattle, in two box cars, got down and required assistance, and they were left; the rest arrived at Chicago at 1 or 2 o'clock A. M. on the 12th, and were unloaded at 9 o'clock the same morning, as the railroad agent would not get up to unload them sooner. The cattle were in bad condition, and would shrink 125 lbs. above ordinary shrinkage in regular time of transit; that said cattle were contracted at

[19 Ill. 137]

Chicago at $3 per hundred; that one ox, weighing 1,680 lbs., was dead, and defendant sold him and got the money; that the cattle were not weighed before leaving Urbana, nor just after arriving at Chicago; that the cattle left at Onarga were turned out in the railroad pen; that the pen needed repairs...