Davis v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 77 Wash. 261
• 137 P. 464
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 885

Syllabus

<p>Carriers — Of Goods — Limited Liability — Contracts—Validity— Evidence — Sufficiency. A contract to carry household goods at a reduced rate upon the shipper’s signing a contract releasing the goods to a valuation of five dollars per hundred pounds, is not shown to have been unfairly made, by the fact that, when the shipper applied for rates, the agent was unable to give him any and kept him waiting several days to hear from headquarters and finally made the rate himself, presenting the receipt without explaining the two rates; and the shipper cannot claim ignorance of the contract from the fact that he did not read it, where nothing was said to mislead-him.</p> <p>Same — Knowledge of Shipper — Fraud. A shipper of household goods who signs a contract releasing the goods at a valuation of five dollars per hundred pounds in consideration of a lower rate, is bound to know that there was more than one rate, and cannot say that he had no notice of the release clause, in the absence of any misrepresentations, fraud, or deceit.</p> <p>Same — Contracts-—Limited Liability. Where goods had been shipped under a limited liability contract, and were held at a connecting point for prepayment of freight, a change of destination, with prepayment to the new destination at the reduced rate, does not abrogate the original contract limiting the liability, where there was a mere diversion of the goods from one point to another, and the shipper was in a position to insist upon the lower rate.</p>