Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/153

 138 FEDERAL REPORIEK. �729. A general railroad agent may Bometimes bind thecompany within the general scope of its o,wn powers, but not a mere station agent, freight receiver, or conductor. Atlantic, etc., Railroad v. Eeis- ner, 18 Kan. 458 ; Whart. Ag. § 222 ; Id. §§ 57-59, 129, 172, 478, «70, 671, C77; Story, Ag. § 69; Cox v. Midland B. Co. 3 Exch. (Wils., Hurl. & Gord.) 268. �The case of Farmera', etc., Nat.Bank v. Erie R. Co, 72 N. Y. 188, illustrates the class of acts within the scope of the authority of this kind of agent, and shows where the corporation is liable for their neglect. It waa a bill of lading issued to the wrong person on goods received, and the carrier was liable to the rightful owner notwith- standing it delivered to this fraudaient consignee. Of course, the company did not authorize an agent to issue to a wrong person^, but having received the goods of the rightfuj owner its liability was fixed, and the agent was neglectful withiri the scope of his authoiaty over the goods. It was his business to deliver to the rightful owner, and it was negligence to deliver to another. , Signing the bill of lading to the wrong person was only an incident of that, neglect. Asnpther illustration is found ixx Bradstreet v. Heran, 2 Blatcbf. 116, where a master signed a bill of lading, representing that the goods shipped were in good order; and another in Relyea v. Eolling Mill Co. 42 Conn. 579, where the bill of ladipg represented that there was a larger quantity thanwas actually shipped, and libels to recover freight were dismissed. But see Blanchet \.Powell, 9 Exch. 74. ,; But there being no goods delivered to the carrier, no agenoy to sign a bill of lading is called into being; indeed, there is no carrier, for there are no goods to be carried. There is a ship or a railroad, but it is not, as to any given person, a carrier without the goods, and it only as carrier that a bill of lading, ii;, the nature of the thing, binds' the company or owner. �The master of ijt ship has a more comprehensive agency than a station or freight agent of a railroad, and be has no authority, actual or apparent, to issue bills of lading until the goods are delivered to faim or to the ship, and it took a statute iu England to make him even personally liable to one injured by such bill of lading. 3 Kent, (12th Ed.) 207, and note; 1 Pars. Mar. Law, (Ed. 1859,) 135, 137, and notes; 1 Pars.. Ship. & Ad. (Ed. 1869,) 187, 19p, and notes; 2 Daniell, Neg. Inst. (2d Ed.) §§1729, 1733 ; 1, Chit. Cont. (llth Ed.) 7, note e; Hutch. Car. §il22, 123, 124; 2 Jac. Fish. Dig. 'l654, and cases cited by these authorities; 18 & :^9 Vict. c. 111, § 3; Jessel ��� �