Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway Co. v. Mitchell

Citations

• 32 Fla. 77

Syllabus

<p>CARRIERS OF PASSENGERS — BAGGAGE—WHEN HUSBAND CAN SUE FOR LOSS OF BAGGAGE OF WIFE.</p> <p>Where husband and wife are traveling together over a railway whose business it is to carry passengers and their baggage, and the husband purchases the tickets representing the fares of himself and wife, and has his own and his wife’s baggage checked to the point of their destination, himself receiving the checks representing the railway’s receipts for such baggage, and the railway company loses or fails to deliver at the agreed point the trunk thus checked of the wife, containing her wearing apparel and that of her child: Held, That under these circumstances the husband can, in his own name alone, without joining his wife, maintain an action for damages upon the contract thus made with him for the carriage of himself and wife and their baggage, for the breach thereof by the railway in failing to deliver the baggage of the wife. That in such case, although the general ownership of the lost trunk and its contents is in the wife, the husband has such a special ownership therein as will entitle him to recover in his own name alone, the value of such lost trunk and its contents as his damages for the breach of the contract made with him for the safe carriage and delivery: Held further, That a recovery by the husband in such case is a complete bar to any subsequent suit upon the same cause of action that might be instituted by the wife.</p>