Baltimore & Ohio Railroad v. Pumphrey

Stone, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This action was brought by the plaintiff against the defendant, a common carrier, for the breach of a contract. The declaration states that the defendant undertook to carry-, for hire, certain goods of the plaintiff from the city-of St. Louis, and deliver the same to him in the city o Baltimore, and alleges as the breach of the contract, that the defendant wantonly, negligently and maliciously refused to deliver to him the same, and that thereby the plaintiff was not only deprived of said goods, but that his business was by such refusal seriously injured. The foundation of the action was a contract made between the plaintiff and defendant, and the breach of that contract on the part of defendant.

The suit was brought for a wrong, dependent upon a contract, and the first question ³⁹⁹ we have to decide is, what is the true measure of damages in such a case. It makes no difference whether the form of the action is ex delicto or ex contractu, the real and substantial gravamen of the complaint is the alleged breach of the contract, and in such a case the same law is applicable to both classes of action. In actions like the present, against common carriers, the suit may be framed, either ex contractu, upon the breach of the engagement, or ex delicto, upon the violation of the public duty; but whether the action be assumpsit on the contract, or case for the violation of duty, the measure of damages is equally a question of law, and as much under the control of the Court as if the right rested in agreement merely. There are many actions nominally in tort, which, in respect to the measure of relief, are treated as virtually ex contractu, and in these cases a fixed rule of damages is adhered to. 2 Addison on Torts, (7th Ed.,) 355 and 454.

The true measure of damages in a case like the present, has been settled by this Court in more than one case. In the case of U. S. Telegraph Co. vs. Gildersleve, 29 Md., 232 , the Court says: “Lastly, as to the measure of damages, if there be a breach of the contract. This is a subject about which there has been a considerable diversity of opinion, and great want of precision in the attempt to define rules of general application. But by the latest and best considered cases upon the subject, the rule seems to be now pretty well established, that a party can only be held responsible for such consequences as may be reasonably supposed to have been in the contemplation of both parties at the time of making the contract, and that no consequence, which is not the necessary or ordinary result of a breach, can be supposed to be contemplated, unless full information be'imparted to the party sought to be held liable at the time of entering into the engagement.” The Court in the same opinion, quote and adopt the opin ⁴⁰⁰ ion in Hadly vs. Boxendale, 9 Exch., 341, in which the Court said: “We think, the proper rule in such a case as the present is this—where two parties have made a contract which one of them has broken, the damages which the other party ought to receive in respect to such breach of contract should be, either such as may be fairly and substantially considered as arising naturally, i. e. according to the usual course of things, from such breach of contract itself, or such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of both parties at the time they made the contract, as the probable result of the breach of it.” This latter case is also adopted by this Court in the case of The Camden Consolidated Oil Co., vs. Schlens & Co., supra page 31.

It is equally well settled that as a general rule the measure of the damages in such cases is the value of the goods at the place of their destination, with compensation for the actual loss which is the natural and proximate consequence of the act, and excluding remote or indirect losses. 2 Sedgwick, 356. The cases of Brown & Otto vs. Werner, 40 Md., 15 , and Shaffer vs. Wilson, 44 Md., 268 , are not in conflict with the cases before cited. These latter cases were for torts entirely, independent of contract, and the damages allowed were the immediate and direct consequences of the defendants’ wrongful act. The interruption and injury to the