Union Pacific Co v. Burke

• Decision Date: 28 February 1921
• Docket Number: No. 183,183
• Citation: 255 U.S. 317,65 L.Ed. 656,41 S.Ct. 283
• Parties: UNION PACIFIC R. CO. v. BURKE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

255 U.S. 317

41 S.Ct. 283

65 L.Ed. 656

UNION PACIFIC R. CO.

v BURKE.

No. 183.

Argued Jan. 27, 1921.

Decided Feb. 28, 1921.

Mr. Oscar R. Houston, of New York City, for petitioner.

Messrs. Arthur W. Clement and Wilson E. Tipple, both of New York City, for respondent.

Mr. Justice CLARKE delivered the opinion of the Court.

On March 10, 1915, S. Ontra & Bro. delivered to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at Yokohama, Japan, 56 cases of 'drawn work goods and renaissance,' consigned to their own order at New York, and received a bill of lading for ocean transportation to San Francisco and thence by the Southern Pacific Company and its connections, by rail, to destination. The property was delivered to the Southern Pacific Company and without new billing was carried to a junction with the line of the petitioner, the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and while in its custody was totally destroyed in a collision. The respondent, successor in interest to the consignor, claimed in this suit the right to recover the fair invoice value of the goods, $17,449.01, and the petitioner conceded his right to recover, but only to the amount of the agreed valuation of $100 per package, $5,600, to which it contended he was limited by the bill of lading. All of the facts are stipulated or proved by undisputed evidence.

The Appellate Division First Department, New York Supreme Court, rendered judgment in favor of respondent for $5,600, with interest and costs, but on appeal to the Court of Appeals of that state the judgment of the Appellate Division was reversed, and an order was entered that a judgment should be rendered by the Supreme Court in favor of respondent for $17,449.01, with interest and costs. The case is brought here on certiorari.

On the face of the bill of lading received at Yokohama was the notation:

'Weight 26,404 lbs.; ocean weight rate, 50c; freight $132.02. Rail, minimum carload weight 30,000 lbs., wght rate $1.25. Freight $375.00.' (Thus the ocean and rail rates are separately stated, and the latter is $1.25 per 100 pounds minimum carload.)

On the back of the bill of lading were printed 31 conditions, the thirteenth of which contained the provision that——

'It is expressly agreed that the goods named in this bill of lading are hereby valued at not exceeding $100 per package, * * * and the liability of the companies therefor in case of the total loss of all or any of the said goods from any cause shall not exceed $100 per package.'

The petitioner was an interstate common carrier by rail at the time of the shipment involved, and as such had filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission schedules of rates and regulations under which the property was moving at the time it was destroyed. By these schedules the carrier was bound, and to them it was limited, in contracting for traffic. Southern Railway v. Prescott, 240 U. S. 632, 638, 36 Sup. Ct. 469, 60 L. Ed. 836. The statute expressly provided that it should not charge or demand or collect or receive a greater or less or different compensation for the transportation of property or for any service in connection therewith than such as was specified in such schedules. 34 Stat. 587, § 6 (Comp. St. §§ 8569, 8597).

In these schedules was included a rule, designated as rule 9A, which reads:

'Unless otherwise provided, when property is transported subject to the provisions of the Western Classification, the acceptance and use are required, respectively, of the 'uniform bill of lading,' 'straight' or 'order' as shown on pages 87 to 90, inclusive.'

For the purposes of this case, only, it is admitted, and accepted by this court, that this rule 9A permitted and required that the property should be treated as moving east of San Francisco under the uniform bill of lading, although, in fact, no other than the Yokohama bill of lading was issued. This uniform bill of lading contained, among other conditions, the following:

'The amount of any loss or damage for which any carrier is liable shall be computed on the basis of the value of the property (being the bona fide invoice price, if any, to the consignee, including the freight charges, if prepaid) at the place and time of shipment under this bill of lading, unless a lower value has been represented in writing by the shipper or has been agreed upon or is determined by the classification or tariffs upon which the rate is based, in any of which events such lower value shall be the maximum amount to govern such computation whether or not such loss or damage occurs from negligence.'

Upon the facts thus stated the petitioner contends that the agreed valuation of $100 per package or case in the Yokohama bill of lading is necessarily imported into the uniform bill of lading, becomes the valuation 'agreed upon' within the terms and conditions quoted from that bill, and limits the respondent's recovery to that amount, $5,600, regardless of the value of the property and of the fact that it was lost by the carrier's negligence.

To this contention it is replied by the respondent: That it is admitted by the petitioner that its filed and published schedules contained but one rate applicable to the shipment as it was carried east of San Francisco; that that rate, $1.25 per 100 pounds minimum carload, was charged in the Yokohama bill of lading; and that, since no choice of rates was given, or could be given, to the...