Gerhard v. Neese

Citations

• 36 Tex. 635

Syllabus

<p>1. The case of House v. Soder, ante p. 629, cited, and the rulings therein approved, to the effect that a common carrier of cotton from the interior of Texas to points on the Texas side of the Eio Grande, during the civil war, is not precluded from recovering freight-money therefor, by reason of any illegality in his contract, or by reason of the default of the, owner in failing to have a person at the place of consignment authorized to receive the cotton—in consequence of which default the cotton was never delivered by the carrier, but was seized by the military authorities of the United States, and lost to the owner.</p> <p>2. In a suit for freight-money on cotton hauled to Brownsville during the civil war, the defendant, in order to raise a presumption that the plaintiff was engaged in an illegal exportation of the cotton, was allowed by the court below to prove a custom then prevalent of running cotton from Brownsville across the Eio Grande into Mexico. Held, that this was erroneous ; fraud cannot be presumed, nor be proved by evidence of a custom.</p> <p>3. A common carrier is bound to reasonable expedition, in the absence of any stipulation as to time. Unreasonable delay renders him liable for actual and legitimate damages, resulting therefrom, but not for hypothetical damages, nor for any supposed loss incurred in an illegal traffic.</p> <p>4 If an owner of cotton, during the civil war, forwarded it by a common carrier to the Eio Grande, for the illegal purpose of evading the blockade and revenue laws of the United States, and of exporting the cotton to Mexico, and attempted to hurry the carrier along so as to escape the United States authorities and effect his purpose, the carrier was under no obligation to make dispatch in aid of the owner’s objects.</p>