Merchants' Despatch Transportation Co. v. Furthmann

Citations

• 149 Ill. 66
• 36 N.E. 624

Syllabus

<p>1. Carriers—limitations of liability by bill of lading not assented to.. Where goods are shipped under a verbal agreement, before any written contract or bill of lading has been tendered to the shipper, the subsequent acceptance of a bill of lading without assenting to its conditions will not conclude the shipper and defeat his right of action for a loss.</p> <p>2. Same—giving bill of lading after shipment, and its effect. Where a verbal agreement for the transportation of goods is made, and-such agreement is acted on, and the shipper has parted with all control over the goods, and the carrier afterward gives the shipper a bill of lading containing restrictions of the carrier’s liability, if the shipper expressly assents to the terms of the bill such assent will operate as a change of the terms of the original contract, but the mere receipt of the bill of lading by the owner will not conclude him from showing what the actual agreement was, under which the goods were shipped.</p> <p>3. Same—receipt not a contract of shipment. On May 4 a carrier gave the shipper of goods a receipt describing the goods and the destination marked thereon. The receipt contained the words, “Subject to the conditions on the back of this receipt.” On the second day thereafter, and while the goods were en route, the carrier gave the shipper a bill of lading contracting to forward the goods upon conditions thereunder written: Held, that the paper delivered to the shipper on May 4 was in no sense a contract of shipment.</p> <p>4. Same—receipt referring to a notice on the back thereof—bills of lading. A receipt for goods by a carrier, upon the back of which is-an unsigned notice intended to restrict the carrier’s liability, is not a contract of shipment binding on the shipper. Bills of lading are both receipts and contracts to carry. So far as they acknowledge the delivery and acceptance of the goods they are mere receipts, and as to the rest they are contracts.</p> <p>5. Contract—lex loci.