Mobile & Ohio Railroad v. Greenwald

Citations

• 104 Miss. 417
• 61 So. 426

Syllabus

<p>1. Interstate Commerce. Delay in settling claims. Laws 1908, chapter 196. Court’s jurisdiction. Amount of demand. Penalty.</p> <p>Chapter 196, Laws 1908, prescribing a penalty of twenty-five dollars to be recovered by shippers from railroads that fail to settle claims for damages to freight within prescribed limits, is not void as an attempt to regulate commerce between the states.</p> <p>2. Courts. Jurisdiction. Amount of demand.</p> <p>Where the amount demanded was one hundred and ninety dollars and the penalty of twenty-five dollars provided by chapter 196, Laws 1908, for failure of railroads to settle claims for damaged freight, the circuit court was the proper forum in which to bring suit, the penalty not being a mere incident, like cost, to the suit for damages.</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>In such case the court on appeal will not reverse the case, because the jury, by its verdict, merely found against the defendant, and in favor of plaintiff, but did not find the damages of the plaintiff, there being no real conflict in the evidence as to the amount which should have been awarded, and the court rendered judgment for the full amount declared for.</p>