The United States Express Co. v. Haines

• Decision Date: 31 January 1873
• Citation: 1873 WL 8151,67 Ill. 137
• Parties: THE UNITED STATES EXPRESS COMPANYv.JAMES HAINES.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

67 Ill. 137

1873 WL 8151 (Ill.)

THE UNITED STATES EXPRESS COMPANY

v.JAMES HAINES.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

January Term, 1873.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of McLean county; the Hon. THOMAS F. TIPTON, Judge, presiding.

This was an action of replevin, by James Haines, against the United States Express Company, to recover a package of money containing $800 in currency, which the plaintiff had expressed to his brother in Austin, Nevada. The brother having left Nevada and returned to this State without receiving the money, the plaintiff requested and ordered the defendant to have the same returned to him. The material facts are stated in the opinion.

Messrs. WILLIAMS & BURR, for the appellant.

Mr. JOHN B. COHRS, for the appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE SCOTT delivered the opinion of the Court:

This action was brought in replevin to recover a package of money containing $800, which had previously been delivered to the express company to be carried or forwarded to Austin, Nevada. It was consigned to Jonathan Haines, then at Austin, and delivered to the company at Pekin, on the 28th day of June, 1865. The package had not reached its destination when the consignee left Austin, about the 1st of September, and in consequence thereof it was ordered to be returned to appellee, and some time in November following appellant received it back from the Overland Stage Company, to whom it had been delivered to be forwarded, and without unreasonable delay it was sent to the office at Pekin.

Appellee was notified of its arrival, and when he applied at the office for the package, he was told the charges on it were over $100--the exact amount perhaps was $102.72. He declined to pay the sum demanded, and, without offering to pay any amount, brought this action. When the officer served the writ and obtained the package, appellee told the clerk the charges were outrageous, and he would not pay them, but would pay a reasonable amount.

The sum claimed to be due on the package was principally for money advanced to the Overland Stage Company for its and the Overland Mail Company's charges on it, to and return from Salt Lake City, and from thence to Austin and back again. There is no complaint the charges to Atchison, as claimed by appellant, were at all unreasonable.

There is no evidence in the record that shows the charges paid to the Overland Stage Company were unreasonable or exorbitant. Indeed, it is shown they were the usual rates. The aggregate sum demanded does seem high, but it must be remembered this was a money package, and had to be carried by stage coaches from Atchison to Austin, a distance of 1600 miles--the greater part of which was then an absolute wilderness, abounding in perils and dangers, and for a part of the distance a military escort was necessary. But there is no issue made by the pleadings, that the charges demanded were unreasonable, and it is not necessary to consider the point further. The defense set up by the express company in its special plea is, it was only, by the terms of the contract, to carry the package from Pekin to Atchison, the nearest point reached by its lines to Austin, and then deliver it to another carrier to be forwarded, which it did do, and having received it back from the second carrier, by order of appellee, it could lawfully retain it until all charges had been paid, as well its own as those advanced to the other carriers.

To this appellee replied, the company's undertaking was to carry the package to Austin, and in consequence of its failure to do so within a reasonable time, he sustained damage in a much larger sum than that claimed to be due for services rendered, and offers to recoup so much as may be sufficient to extinguish the amount demanded for charges.

In the receipt given it is expressly stated that appellant undertakes to...