Yazoo & M. V. R. Co. v. Clarksdale Coal & Grain Co.

• Decision Date: 20 January 1930
• Docket Number: 28330
• Citation: 156 Miss. 152,125 So. 725
• Parties: YAZOO & M. V. R. CO. v. CLARKSDALE COAL & GRAIN CO
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

125 So. 725

156 Miss. 152

YAZOO & M. V. R. CO. v. CLARKSDALE COAL & GRAIN CO

No. 28330

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 20, 1930

Division B

APPEAL from circuit court of Coahoma county, Second district HON WM. A. ALCORN, JR., Judge.

Suit by the Clarksdale Coal & Grain Company against the Yazoo &amp Mississippi Valley Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

Burch, Minor & McKay, of Memphis, Tenn., and Cutrer & Smith, of Clarksdale, for appellant.

Where a railroad company fails to deliver a shipment of personal property, which it has undertaken to transport, the damages to be recovered by the shipper or consignee are the actual loss which the shipper or consignee has sustained by reason of the breach of the contract of carriage. The "actual loss" is said to be the loss "of what the contracted would have had if the contract had been performed." The damages are to be measured at the moment when the contract is broken. The court will not look beyond that or concern itself with later events or remote consequences.

McCall-Dinsmore Co. v. C., M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 253 U.S. 97; Southern P. Co. v. Darnell Taenzer Co., 245 U.S. 531; U. S. v. New River Collieries, 262 U.S. 341; Canadian P. Co. v. Wieland, 226 F. 670; Railroad v. Ragsdale, 46 Miss. 458; Crail v. Illinois Central R. Co., 13 F.2d 459, 461; Grand Tower Mining Co. v. Phillips, 90 U.S. 471; Y. & M. V. R. R. Co. v. Delta Grocery & Cotton Co., 134 Miss. 846; M. & M. Transportation Co. v. Branch, 282 F. 494; Lawrence v. Porter, 63 F. 62.

The rule is that profits lost by breach of contract, expected to be realized from the resale of a commodity, are special damages, and are not recoverable in the absence of notice, at the time the contract was made of special circumstances from which it may be reasonably inferred that the parties contemplated loss of profits as an element of damages in the event the contract was breached. The rule further is that mere knowledge on the part of the seller that the goods were being purchased by a dealer for resale is not enough to support a recovery of profits as special damages.

Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha, Ltd., v. Davis, 291 F. 882; Champion Spark Plug Co. v. Automobile Sundries Co., 273 F. 74; Setton v. Eberle-Albrecht Flour Co., 258 F. 905; Sigafus v. Porter, 179 U.S. 116; Smith v. Boles, 132 U.S. 125; Railroad v. Ragsdale, 46 Miss. 458, 483; Hadley v. Baxendale, 9 Exch. 341; 56 A.L.R., page 1184; Railroad v. Jacobson, 112 Miss. 158; Railroad v. A. J. Lyon & Co., 107 Miss. 777; Railroad v. Allen, 106 Miss. 275; Chair Company v. Railroad, 105 Miss. 861; Express Company v. Burk, 104 Miss. 275.

Maynard, Fitzgerald & Venable, of Clarksdale, for appellee.

The full actual loss for which a carrier is liable under the Cummins Amendment is the equivalent of the price for which the goods would sell at the point of destination, and not the invoice price or the price paid plus freight. And where the consignee is a retail dealer, known to be such to the railroad company, the measure of damages would be the value of the goods to him, to wit: what he could have gotten for them had they been delivered.

Y. & M. V. R. R. Co. v. Delta Grocery & Cotton Co., 134 Miss. 846; Chicago, etc., R. R. Co. v. McCall-Dinsmore Co., 253 U.S. 97, 64 L.Ed. 801, 260 F. 835; Leominister Fuel Company v. Railroad Company (Mass. case), 154 N.E. 831; Heidritter Lumber Company v. Central Railroad Company, 100 N.J.L. 402, 122 A. 691, 125 A. 926; Riley-Wilson Grocery Co. v. Saint Louis & S. F. R. Co. (Mo. case), 184 S.W. 915; Henry Perkins Co. v. American Express Co., 199 Mass. 561, 85 N.E. 895.

Profits are recoverable where their loss is approximate and certain, constituting a breach of duty.

Howard v. Stillwell Mfg. Co., 139 U.S. 199, 35 L.Ed. 147.

Argued orally by C. H. McKay, for appellant.

OPINION

Griffith, J.

An interstate shipment of a carload of coal came into the hands of appellant railroad company for transportation to appellee as consignee at Clarksdale. There was a total failure of delivery, and appellee in a suit for the damages recovered as such the amount of the price at which appellee could have sold the said coal at retail, less the drayage charges for retail delivery.

"The true measure of damages for the breach of a contract to transport and deliver coal or other like personal property at a certain place and time is the fair average market value at the time and place of delivery of such a quantity of like coal or other property as the contractor failed to deliver as agreed. It is the amount it would have been necessary for the shipper or owner to pay in the open market at the time and place of delivery for such a quantity and kind of coal or other property as the carrier failed to deliver as it agreed." Crail v. Illinois Cent. R. Co. (C.C.A.), 13 F.2d 459, pages 461, 462. See, also, 4 R. C. L., pp. 929, 930; 10 C. J., pp. 395, 396; Mobile, J. & K. C. Railroad Co. v. Cotton Co., 94 Miss. 351, 48 So. 231; Yazoo & M. V. Railroad Co. v. Delta Grocery & Cotton Co., 134 Miss. 846, 98 So. 777; Yazoo & M. V. Railroad Co....