The Kansas City v. Rodebaugh

• Decision Date: 01 July 1887
• Citation: 38 Kan. 45,15 P. 899
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court
• Parties: THE KANSAS CITY, ST. JOSEPH & COUNCIL BLUFFS RAILROAD COMPANY v. LIZZIE M. RODEBAUGH

15 P. 899

38 Kan. 45

THE KANSAS CITY, ST. JOSEPH & COUNCIL BLUFFS RAILROAD COMPANY v. LIZZIE M. RODEBAUGH

Supreme Court of Kansas

July 1, 1887

Error from Atchison District Court.

ACTION brought by the defendant in error before a justice of the peace, to recover the value of a trunk and its contents. Trial, and judgment for the plaintiff. The defendant appealed. Trial by the court, at the June Term, 1885 findings of fact and conclusions of law, and judgment thereon in favor of the plaintiff, defendant in error, for $ 211.25 and costs. The defendant company brings the case here for review. The opinion states the facts.

Judgment affirmed.

Frank Royse, for plaintiff in error.

Tomlinson & Eaton, for defendant in error.

CLOGSTON C. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

CLOGSTON, C.

This action was brought to recover the value of a trunk and its contents, which plaintiff in error received as baggage to be transported over its road and connecting lines to Mitchell, Dakota territory. The findings of fact by the court show the following: That on the 28th day of August, 1884, plaintiff, defendant in error, desiring to go from Atchison to Mitchell, Dakota territory, applied to the defendant at Atchison for a ticket from Atchison to Mitchell, and was by the agent informed of the price of a ticket or fare between said points, which amount the plaintiff paid, and was given a ticket. The ticket received by the plaintiff was what was called a "skeleton ticket," with coupons attached, giving the names of the different roads over which plaintiff would travel in going from Atchison to Mitchell. At the time of receiving said ticket the agent made no statement of the contents of the ticket to the plaintiff, and she made no examination of the ticket. The heading of the ticket contained these words:

"Special limited ticket. Good for one continuous first-class passage, when [ ] stamped by the company's agent, subject to the following contract: In selling this ticket for passage over other roads, this company acts only as agent, and assumes no responsibility beyond its own line. None of the companies represented in this ticket will assume any liability on baggage except for wearing apparel, and then only for a sum not exceeding $ 100."

Below this printed matter was left a blank space for the signature of the purchaser, and also for a witness. Plaintiff was not required to and did not sign said ticket, and it was not witnessed or signed by any one. No reduction of fare was made by reason of the stipulation contained in the ticket. This ticket was for a passage, first, over the defendant's road from Atchison to Council Bluffs; from Council Bluffs, over the Chicago & Northwestern Railway and the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, to Sioux City; from Sioux City, over the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, to Mitchell, Dakota. After receiving this ticket the plaintiff presented it to the baggage agent at the union depot at Atchison, and with it her trunk containing the usual wearing apparel of the plaintiff, and requested that the same be checked, which was done, and she received a check for the transportation of said trunk from Atchison to Mitchell, over the lines named in said ticket. Plaintiff boarded the defendant's train at Atchison, and defendant took charge of and placed said baggage upon the train, and the same was transported to Council Bluffs. When it arrived there the trunk was by the defendant's agents in charge of the train, assisted by the employes of the union depot at Council Bluffs, unloaded from the baggage car and placed upon a truck, for the purpose of being transported into the depot. The defendant had also received as baggage, somewhere between Atchison and Council Bluffs, a box containing three jugs of sulphuric acid. The top of this box was covered with a cloth only. In unloading the baggage this box was placed on the top of the truck containing the trunk of the plaintiff, and in this condition the truck was rolled into the baggage room of the union depot by the employes of said depot, and in removing the baggage from the truck they first attempted to remove the box containing the sulphuric acid, and the contents of one of the jugs was spilled and ran over the baggage and the trunk of the plaintiff; the acid escaping by reason of the cork having been eaten up or destroyed by the acid, and the trunk and its contents were saturated by the acid and all of its contents destroyed or burned up, save and except two or three articles. Plaintiff, on arriving at her destination, presented her check, and was informed that her trunk had not arrived; whereupon she went to a hotel and remained nine days, at an expense of $ 11.25, waiting for her trunk to arrive. Finding that it did not come, she returned to Council Bluffs, and there learned of the destruction of the baggage, and the articles saved therefrom were turned over to her. Afterward she returned to Atchison, and commenced this action for the value of the trunk and its contents.

The first objection to this judgment is, that the court had no jurisdiction of the defendant, contending that as this action was brought under §...