Merchants & Miners' Transportation Co. v. Story

Miller, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellant, a Maryland corporation, engaged in carrying passengers and freight between Boston and Baltimore, was sued by the appellee, for damage to certain b&olrs which had been brought to the latter city in one of the company’s steamships. The declaration charges that the defendant agreed to carry said goods from Boston to Baltimore, and safely keep them in Baltimore until it delivered them to the plaintiff, but did not so safely keep the same, but carelessly and negligently permitted said goods while in its possession, to be greatly damaged and injured by water, when it might by reasonable and ordinary care and diligence have prevented such damage and injury.' The defendant pleaded that it did not commit the wrong and injury alleged, and the case was tried before a jury upon issue joined on that plea. The proof shows that the books packed in boxes were shipped at Boston, on the 9th of September, 1876, under a bill of lading, which stated that “freight carried by this company must be removed from the wharf at Boston and Baltimore, during business hours on the day of its discharge, or it is liable to be stored at the risk and expense of the owner; all merchandise at the owner’s risk while on the wharf.” The books arrived safely in Baltimore on the 12th of September, and were put on the company’s wharf in the place set apart for Boston freight, where they remained until the 18th of that month.

On the day of their arrival, the company addressed and mailed á letter to the plaintiff, giving him notice that the goods were ready for delivery, and stating that they “must be removed within twelve hours, or they will be stored at your risk and ex ¹⁴ pense.” The plaintiff did not receive this notice, and did not call for his books until Monday, the 18th of September, when he found them injured and damaged by water. This injury was occasioned by water flooding the wharf during a storm of rain and south-east wind of unusual violence, which occurred on Sunday the 17th of September. The wharf was well covered, and was in other respects, save its proximity to the water, a safe and secure-place for the storage of goods. As to the facts thus stated there is no dispute.

There is, however, other evidence in the record which will be noticed presently. Upon all the evidence the Court, in lieu of certain prayers offered by the plaintiff, instructed the jury that if they found “that the plaintiff delivered to the defendant in good order the goods mentioned in the testimony, to be transported for Lire from Boston to Baltimore in one of the defendant’s steamships, and to be there delivered to the plaintiff in-like good order, upon the payment of said hire, and the defendant signed and delivered to the plaintiff, the bill of lading offered in evidence, and did transport the said goods to Baltimore, and landed them in good order upon the said defendant’s wharf in Baltimore, on the 12th of September, 1876, and thereupon addressed and mailed the notice to the plaintiff given in evidence, then at the end of the business day of the 12th of September, the relation of the defendant to the said goods as a common carrier ceased, and the said defendant held the same goods thereafter as a warehouseman, subject only to the liabilities which appertain to that relation; that as such warehouseman, the said defendant was bound to use reasonable care in storing said goods in a place of safety according to their kind, and then by the practice of the same care keeping them from injury till called for by the plaintiff; that reasonable care in this connection means such care as a prudent man would give to the keeping of his own goods of like-kind and under like circumstances; and if the jury shall ¹⁵ find that the defendant did not exercise the care above defined, and that the goods were injured for the want of the same, then they will find their verdict for the plaintiff, and will give him such damages as they shall think he has sustained, and if they shall find that the deféndant did exercise such care, then they will find their verdict for the defendant.” As to the law of this instruction, there can, we think, he no well founded objection. ' In our opinion it correctly interprets the contract between the parties, and correctly states the obligations which the law imposed upon the defendant after the goods had been transported. This, in fact, was not seriously controverted in argument by the appellant’s counsel, hut he insists that under the circumstances of the case, there was no negligence on the part of the appellant, and the Court ought to have so instructed the jury. This question is not raised by an exception to the instruction under rules 4 and 5, (29 Md, 2,) that there was no evidence