Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. Blum

Citations

• 102 Miss. 303
• 59 So. 92

Syllabus

<p>1. Carriers. Carriage of freight. Liability of warehouseman. Termination of liability as carrier.</p> <p>A carrier in the absence of negligence on its part is not liable for freight destroyed by fire, if at the time of the fire its liability •was that of a warehouseman and not that of a common carrier.</p> <p>2. Carriers. Carriage of freight. Termination of liability as carrier.</p> <p>Where a carrier agreed with the consignee thereof to deliver cotton to a compress company, the duty at once devolved upon it, in the absence of a contract to the contrary, of making delivery to the compress in the usual and ordinary way, by placing it in an accessible position and giving notice thereof to the compress company and until this was done, and a reasonable time for the compress company to unload the car had elapsed the carrier’s liability as a common carrier continued.</p> <p>3. Carriers. Termination of liability as carrier.</p> <p>Where a carrier contracted with the consignee of cotton to deliver it in the usual way to a compress company but failed to do so and the cotton was burned, the carrier cannot avoid its liability as insurer by showing that it had either complied with a special contract with the compress company with reference to making deliveries or that the loss was caused by the negligence of the servants of the compress company. Since the compress company ¡was a mere agent of the consignee to receive the cotton and was not given any express and had no implied power to release the carrier from its common law liability as an insurer, and in the absence of any knowledge on the part of the consignees of such special contract between the carrier and the compress company, the consignees are not bound thereby.</p>