Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/355

 PART IV.] LIABILITY FOR TORTS OF AGENTS. [§ 355. precedent for any contract for the transportation of baggage information from the passenger as to its value ; and if the value thus disclosed exceeds that which the passenger may reasonably demand to be transported as baggage without ex- tra compensation, the carrier, at its option, can make such additional charge as the risk fairly justifies. And the carrier may be discharged from liability for the full value of the pas- senger's baggage, if the latter, by false statements, or by any device or artifice, puts off inquiry as to such value, whereby is imposed upon the carrier responsibility beyond that which it was bound to assume in consideration of the ordinary fare charged for the transportation of the person [so far obiter]. But in the absence of legislation limiting the responsibility of carriers for the baggage of passengers ; in the absence of rea- sonable regulations upon the subject by the carrier, of which the passenger has knowledge ; in the absence of inquiry of the passenger as to the value of articles carried, under the name of baggage, for his personal use and convenience in travelling ; and in the absence of conduct upon the part of the passenger misleading the carrier as to the value of his baggage, the court cannot in law declare that the mere failure of the passenger to disclose, unasked, the value of his baggage is a fraud upon the carrier, which defeats all rights of recovery." There is in law no fixed limit to the value of bao-p-ap-e for which the carrier is responsible, when he does not limit his re- sponsibility by special contract. But his responsibility as in- surer is limited to such articles as it is customary or reasonable for travellers of the same class in life to which the passenger may belong to take for the journey in hand, and does not ex- tend to those which the caprice of a particular passenger might lead him to take; and it rests with the jury to determine the special case in accordance with these principles. 1 1 Railroad Co. v. Fraloff, 100 IT. S. 24, supra. In this case the carrier was held liable for laces stolen from the baggage of a Russian countess, and valued by the jury at ten thou- sand dollars. See, also, Del Valle v. Steamboat Richmond, 27 La. Ann. 90; Rutland R. R. Co. v. Ramchau, 71 Vt. 142. A carrier is liable for money in baggage to an amount bona fide taken for travelling purposes, and not more than a prudent person would deem necessary and proper to take. Jordan v. Fall River R. R. Co., 5 Cush. 69; Merrill v. Grinnel,30 N. Y. 594. See Dunlap v. Interna- tional Steamboat Co., 98 Mass. 371; 335