Covington v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad

Citations

• 111 Miss. 559
• 71 So. 821

Syllabus

<p>1. Cashiers. Carriage of Uve stock. Instructions. Contract against liahity for negligence. Choice 6y shipper. Limitation of value.</p> <p>In a suit for damages to a shipment of stock, where the animals were kept in a car with an open top door on the top for some forty hours in winter without feed, water, or rest, with snow and sleet coming through on them, an instruction that the jury could not consider any damages or injuries caused by the condition of the car was erroneous as calculated to lead the jury away from the main issue of the case since though the bill of lading read that the ear had been accepted by the shipper as in proper condition, it still might have been possible for the road to make prompt shipment in the defective car without damage, and'even had the shipper been bound by the selection of the car and the provisions of the bill of lading he had the right to expect prompt shipment.</p> <p>2. Carriage of Live Stock. Contracts against liability for negligence.</p> <p>A provision in a bill of lading for a shipment of live stock that the car or cars in which the animals were loaded had been accepted by the shipper as being in proper condition, and that the road should not be liable except for loss resulting from its gross negligence, was void as an indirect attempt on the part of the road to contract against liability for its own negligence, since the carrier owes to the shipping public the duty of providing reasonably safe appliances and cars, and its duty in this regard cannot be evaded or its liability limited by a contract, the terms of which the shipper under all the circumstances of any particular case is bound to agree to, such a provision in a bill of lading constitutes a deliberate effort on the part of transportation companies to shift the consequences of their own negligence upon the shipper.</p> <p>3. Carriers. Carriage of live stoclc. Choice by shipper.</p> <p>A shipper may for a cheaper freight rate, bind himself to accept a less commod