Howard v. American Express Co.

Citations

• 47 Pa. Super. 416
• 1911 Pa. Super. LEXIS 170

Syllabus

<p>Common carriers — Carriers—Express companies — Form of action— Trespass — Contract—Negligence—Limitation of liability.</p> <p>1. An action of trespass may be maintained against, a common carrier for negligence in transporting goods, although a contract may have been entered into between the shipper and the carrier.</p> <p>2. Where goods which have been delivered to an express company have been destroyed in transitu through the negligence of the carrier, the owner is entitled to recover their full value, although the owner’s agent who did not know the value of the goods, and therefore could not state the value, had accepted a receipt in which the company had limited its liability to a sum much less than the real value of the goods.</p> <p>3. In Pennsylvania a common carrier cannot contract against his own negligence.</p> <p>Evidence — Conflict of laws — Lex fori.</p> <p>4. The law of another state will be presumed to be the same as that of the lex fori in the absence of evidence to the contrary. This rule is applicable in an action against a carrier to recover for goods shipped from Pennsylvania into another state and destroyed in tbe other state..</p>