Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Co. v. W. C. Craig & Co.

• Decision Date: 24 April 1916
• Citation: 111 Miss. 297,71 So. 561
• Parties: YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. W. C. CRAIG & COMPANY
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

71 So. 561

111 Miss. 297

YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. W. C. CRAIG & COMPANY

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 24, 1916

March 1916

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

Suit by W. C. Craig & Co. against the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.

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

Judgment reversed.

Mayes Wells, May & Sanders, for appellant.

McLaurin & Arminstead, for appellee.

OPINION

SMITH, C. J.

In April, 1909, appellee, W. C. Craig & Co., cotton merchants, filed with appellant, Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, four claims against appellant for loss on cotton shipped over appellant's railroad, and in March or April, 1910, appellee filed with appellant a claim of similar character, which several claims were paid by appellant in February, 1911, the several amounts thereof being, respectively, two hundred and forty-one dollars and eleven cents; two hundred and seventy-six dollars and fifty-three cents; two hundred and fifty-six dollars and eighty-eight cents; four hundred and twelve dollars and seventy-two cents and two hundred and sixty-four dollars and eighty-five cents. All these payments were made by vouchers issued by the appellant railroad company, the vouchers being uniform, except as to date and amount, and were as follows:

The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. Co. to W. C. Craig & Co., Dr.

BNS 2/6/11

Vicksburg Mississippi.

F. A. C.

Y

52169

1910

February 1

3003

53882

Cotton

For loss on ten bales of cotton shipped from Vicksburg, Miss., consigned order notify Baltic Mill, Baltic, Conn.

Amount

$ 276.53

Approved for payment:

Comptroller.

Audited:

Auditor of Disbursement.

Received Feb. 25th, 1911, of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. Co. two hundred seventy-six 53/100 dollars, in full of the above account.

W C. CRAIG & CO.

Some months after these claims were settled this suit was instituted in the court of a justice of the peace by appellee to recover of appellant the sum of one hundred and forty-five dollars and nineteen cents, representing interest on these several claims at the rate of six per cent. per annum from the day they were filed with appellant until they were paid. Appellee obtained judgment in the court of the justice of the peace, and, an appeal having been prosecuted to the circuit court, a jury was there waived and the cause submitted to and decided by the judge, who returned a judgment in favor of appellee, from which judgment this appeal is taken.

Leaving out of view the rule announced in Clayton v Clark, 74 Miss. 499, 21 So. 565, 22 So. 189, 37 L. R. A. 771, 60 Am. St. Rep. 521, the judgment of the court below nevertheless must be reversed; for the interest here sought to be recovered is not due by virtue of a contract providing for the payment thereof, but is simply a legal...