Illinois Central Railroad v. Mitchell

Citations

• 68 Ill. 471

Syllabus

<p>1. Common carrier—liability of an intermediate ca/rrier in a continuous line. Where a carrier receives goods -for transportation over his line, and then to be delivered to another for like transportation, he can not relieve himself of the common law liability of insurer, until he has actually delivered them to the next carrier in the line. If the next carrier is not ready to receive them, and he stores them in a warehouse, the goods will still be considered in transit, and his liability will not be changed to that of warehouseman. That is the case only when the goods have reached their final destination.</p> <p>2. Thus, where a lot of flour was shipped in Wisconsin, by the Mineral Point Railroad Company, to Warren, Illinois, thence by defendant’s railroad to Chicago, and from Chicago by the Union Steamboat Company to Buffalo, and from the last place to New York by the Erie Railroad, marked to “ Poster, Gwyn & Co., New York, care of Union Steamboat Company, Chicago, Illinois,” and the flour was received by the defendant at Warren, and transported to Chicago, and put in defendant’s warehouse late on the 6th of October, 1871, where it was destroyed by fire Oct. 8,1871, the boat company having no regular time for departure: Held, that the defendant was liable to the owner for the loss; but that if Chicago had been the final destination of the flour, the defendant’s liability as carrier would have ceased, and that of warehouseman have attached.</p>