Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. v. Willis

• Decision Date: 24 April 1916
• Citation: 71 So. 563,111 Miss. 303
• Parties: YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. WILLIS
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

71 So. 563

111 Miss. 303

YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. WILLIS

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 24, 1916

March 1916

APPEAL from the circuit court of Hinds county, HON. E. L. BRIEN Special Judge.

Suit by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company against Floyd Willis. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Affirmed.

Mayes Wells, May & Sanders, for appellant.

Watkins & Watkins, for appellee.

OPINION

HOLDEN, J.

The appellant railroad company, plaintiff in the court below, sued the appellee, Floyd Willis, defendant in the court below, and from a judgment in favor of appellee it prosecutes this appeal.

STATEMENT OF FACTS.

The agreed statement of facts is here set out:

"Floyd Willis, the defendant herein, was a cotton dealer in the city of Jackson, Miss., and on October 23, 1906, he shipped over the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company's line one hundred bales of cotton from said city of Jackson to Williamsville, Mass., shipper's order notify Woodward &amp Stillman, New York City, the said cotton weighing fifty-one thousand, two hundred pounds, subject to correction marked 'S. H. E.' as per original bill of lading hereto attached and marked Exhibit A. The freight was prepaid on the said shipment, and amounted, as paid, to the sum of two hundred and ninety-six dollars and ninety-six cents.

"The tariffs of the carriers handling the said shipment were filed with and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission at Washington, and were so filed at the time of the said shipment, and said tariffs were published in the office of the plaintiff at Jackson, Miss., as required by law, and the correct amount of freight upon the said shipment from Jackson, Miss. to Williamsville, Mass., was the sum of three hundred and forty-eight dollars and sixteen cents, as shown by the said tariffs, and not two hundred and ninety-six dollars and ninety-six cents, as collected by the agent at Jackson, Miss., the said rate as so shown by the said tariffs being sixty-eight cents per one hundred pounds, instead of fifty-eight cents per one hundred pounds, as charged and collected by the said agent. The agent at Jackson, Miss., of the plaintiff was acting in good faith in collecting the said amount of freight and likewise, in good faith, was in error in quoting a rate of fifty-eight cents to the defendant, instead of the correct rate of sixty-eight cents.

"That Floyd Willis had an order from Williamsville, Mass., for one hundred bales of cotton; that before making a price thereon he inquired of the agent of the plaintiff company the rate on said cotton to said point, and was informed that the rate was fifty-eight cents per one hundred pounds; that said Floyd Willis, as a matter of fact, was ignorant of said rate, and quoted to the purchaser in Massachusetts the cotton at a price based on the freight rate of fifty-eight cents per one hundred pounds, and in quoting said price based on a rate of fifty-eight cents per one hundred pounds, and on paying said rate did so in perfect good faith believing that to be the proper rate. The difference between the freight collected and that which should have been collected is fifty-one dollars and twenty cents, and it is agreed that the plaintiff's agent at Jackson, Miss., should have collected the additional sum of fifty-one dollars and twenty cents, sufficient to make the correct freight charge.

"It is agreed that the lawful rate of interest in Mississippi is six...