Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/366

 § 363.] THE LAW OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS. [CHAP. VII. however, the prevailing doctrine in this country, where the rule generally followed is as stated by Justice Field, delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, in Myrick v. Michigan Central R. II. Co. 1 " A railroad company is a carrier of goods for the public, and, as such, is bound to carry safely whatever goods are in- trusted to it for transportation, within the course of its busi- ness, to the end of its route, and there deposit them in a suit- able place for their owners or consignees. If the road of the company connects with other roads, and goods are received for transportation beyond the termination of its own line, there is superadded to its duty as a common carrier that of a forwarder by the connecting line ; that is, to deliver safely the goods to such line — the next carrier on the route beyond. This forward- ing duty arises from the obligation implied in taking the goods for the point beyond its own line. The common law imposes no greater duty than this. If more is expected from the com- pany receiving the shipment, there must be a special agreement for it. This is the doctrine of this court, though a different rule of liability is adopted in England and in some of the states. . . . The general doctrine, then, as to transportation by connecting lines, approved b} T this court, and also by a ma- jority of state courts, amounts to this : that each road confining itself to its common law liability is only bound, in the absence of a special contract, to safely carry over its own route and safely to deliver to the next connecting carrier, but that any one of the companies may agree that over the whole route its liability shall extend. In the absence of a special agreement to that effect such liability will not attach, and the agreement will not be inferred from doubtful expressions or loose language, but Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Weaver, 9 Lea(Tenn.), 38. See, also, East Tenn. and Va. R. R. Co. v. Rogers, 6 Heisk. (Tenn.) 143; Western and Atlantic R. R. Co. v. McElwee, ib. 208; Mosher o. Southern Exp. Co., 38 Ga. 37; Southern Exp. Co. v. Sliea, 38 Ga. 519; Cohen v. Southern Exp. Co., 45 Ga. 148. If goods are delivered to a carrier to be carried to a place be- yond its terminus, and no receipt is 346 taken, but freight is paid for the whole distance, the carrier will be liable for a loss occurring beyond its own line. Adams Exp. Co. v. Wilson, 81 111. 339. A carrier checking bag- gage beyond his line remains liable as insurer if he forwards baggage by a route other than that by which he has agreed. Isaacson v. N. Y. C. <fe H. R. R. R. Co., 94 N. Y. 278. i 107 U. S. 102.