Larabee Flour Mills Co. v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 74 Kan. 808
• 88 P. 72
• 1906 Kan. LEXIS 147

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Railroads — Common Carrier — Discrimination. Under the facts of this case it is held that a railway company holding itself out to the public as ready, and as undertaking, to do switching which requires it to leave its own rails and right of way and go upon the rails and right of way of another company, with which it has no express contract relating either to compensation for switching or to track rights, is a common carrier, and as such must switch cars without discrimination against a disfavored shipper.</p> <p>2. Mandamus — Switching Service Wrongfully Discontinued. If the switching service described be wrongfully discontinued as to a single shipper he is entitled to a writ- of mandamus to compel the carrier to resume it.</p> <p>3. Railroads — Discontinuance of Switching Service Not Excused — Parties in Equal Wrong. A common carrier of the kind described has no right to discontinue switching cars fór a shipper on account of his refusal to pay bills for car service when the detention for which the charges were assessed was occasioned as much by the fault of the carrier as by the fault of the shipper.</p> <p>4. - Payment for Car Service — ¡Unreasonable Regulation. A rule or order obliging a shipper to pay car-service charges whether just or unjust, with no redress but to submit a claim for the return of his money to the manager of the car-service association promulgating the requirement, is not reasonable.</p> <p>5. Commerce — Internal Movement of Property — State Control. The internal movement of property is not freed from state control until after it has been finally released by the consignor to a carrier for transportation to a destination fixed beyond the state line; and under the facts of this case such control is not lost until after the freight has been billed to its destination.</p> <p>6. - Switching Loaded Cars — Preliminary Incident to Interstate Commerce. The switching of cars, loaded with freight afterward transported