Pennsylvania Railroad v. Josephine Furnace & Coke Co.

Citations

• 247 Pa. 99
• 93 A. 22
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 788

Syllabus

<p>Common carriers — Railroad companies — Demurrage regulations —Reasonableness.</p> <p>1. In an action by a common carrier against a furnace company to recover demurrage charges in accordance with the rules of the plaintiff company upon cars delivered to the defendant company and not unloaded within the prescribed period, it is not error for the court to refuse to submit to the jury the question of the unreasonableness of such regulations in the absence of evidence to the contrary; and this is particularly true where the question involved is the amount of free time allowed for unloading cars, and it appears that in addition to 48 hours free time accorded to all shippers the defendant was allowed from 72 to 102 hours free time for unloading the cars in question, besides Sundays and holidays, and under certain conditions 48 hours additional, which is in excess of the free time required to be allowed by the Act of May 24, 1907, P. L. 229.</p> <p>Principal and agent — Agency for receipt of freight — Industrial railroad companies — Evidence of agency.</p> <p>2. An industrial railroad, connecting a blast furnace with a common carrier, is properly found to be the agent of the furnace company for the receipt of freight from the carrier, and the furnace company is properly made defendant in an action to recover demurrage charges, where it appears that the industrial railroad operated only upon the premises of the blast furnace company and in connection with its business ; that freight received by the lateral railroad was receipted for in the name of the furnace company, and that delivery to the lateral railroad was regarded by the furnace company as delivery to itself. It is not material that the furnace and the railroad were owned by separate corporations, or that the common carrier paid a switching charge to the lateral railroad, where such payments were subsequently received by the furnace company.</p>