Covington Stock-Yards Co. v. Keith

Citations

• 139 U.S. 128
• 11 S. Ct. 461
• 35 L. Ed. 73
• 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2366

Syllabus

<p>A railroad company, holding itself out as a carrier of live stock, is under a legal obligation, arising out of the nature of its employment, to provide suitable and necessary means and facilities for receiving live stock that may be offered for shipment over its road and connections, as well as for discharging such stock after it reaches the place to which it is consigned.</p> <p>The duty to receive such stock cannot be efficiently .discharged, at least in a town or city, without the aid of inclosed yards in which the stock offered for shipment can be received and handled with safety and without inconvenience to the public, while being loaded upon the ears in which they are to be transported. And the duty of the carrier to deliver cannot be safely and effectively performed except in and through inclosed yards or lots convenient to the place of unloading.</p> <p>A carrier of live stock must be at all times in proper condition both to receive from the shipper and to deliver to the consignee, according to the nature of the property to be transported, as well as to the necessities of the respective localities in which it is received and delivered. It cannot, in addition to the customary and legitimate charges for transportation, make, or allow any agent it employs to make a special charge for merely receiving or merely delivering such stock in and through yards provided for that purpose.</p> <p>In respect to the mere loading and unloading of the stock at a particular city, the carrier is required by the nature of its employment to furnish' such suitable and convenient appliances as are reasonably sufficient for the business at that place.</p>