Waters v. Mobile & Ohio Railroad

Citations

• 74 Miss. 534

Syllabus

<p>1. Common Carrier. Damage to freight. Shipper. Owners. Justice’s jurisdiction.</p> <p>Where a person ships freight, part of which belongs to him and parts to others, and the same is damaged by the negligence of the carrier, he may sue in tort in a justice’s court for the injury to his own property, if the same does not exceed two hundred dollars, and that, too, though the entire shipment was made under one contract with him alone, and the damages to all the property exceed said sum; and, in such case, the fact that the plaintiff has brought separate suits, as agent for the other owners for their damages, will not defeat his individual case.</p> <p>2. Tort. Contract. Wa-imer. Parties.</p> <p>The owner of property damag’ed by a common carrier is a proper plaintiff in an action sounding in tort for the injury, even where the shipment was by and in the name of another. The contract may be waived and suit brought in tort for the gross or wilful negligence.</p>