Story Case

James Drew, living in Wichita, Kansas, owned a Ford automobile, and operated a transfer service, carrying both passengers and their baggage, between the local railroad station and the town hotel. He conducted what was popularly known as a "jitney bus." Walter Frey arrived at the station and engaged Drew to carry him to the other end of his route. He placed his suit case in the front seat of the automobile with Drew. When they arrived at the hotel, both Drew and Frey entered the hotel office, leaving the baggage in the automobile. During their absence, the suit case was stolen, without any fault on Drew's part. Frey now attempts to hold Drew, as a common carrier, liable for the loss. Can Frey do this?

Ruling Court Case No. 1. Allen Vs. Sackrider, Volume 37 Newyork Reports, Page 341

Allen was in the grain business at Ogdensburgh, New York. He engaged the defendant, Sackrider, who owned a sloop, to haul grain from a point in Canada. The first cargo of grain was carried and delivered without an accident. Then Allen engaged Sackrider for a second trip. On this trip the grain was wet and damaged, through no fault of Sackrider. Allen maintained, however, that Sackrider was a common carrier, and liable for the loss of the grain, although he was not careless. The case turned on the point whether or not Sackrider was a common carrier.

Mr. Justice Parker delivered the opinion: "A common carrier is one who holds himself out to do service in carriage to the public in general. In this case, the defendant made only two trips; he did not hold himself out to the world as a carrier, undertaking to carry for a compensation the goods of all persons indifferently. This casual use of his sloop was not sufficient to make him a common carrier." Therefore, he is not liable, since the loss did not occur because of his negligence.

Ruling Court Case No. 2. Bussey & Company Vs. Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, Volume 24 La. Ann., Page 165

Bussey & Company, a commercial firm, sued the defendant, a corporation, whose business it was to transport merchandise in its own barges and to tow the barges of other parties for hire, between St. Louis and New Orleans. It had entrusted to the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company one barge loaded with corn and hay; said barge and cargo "to be delivered without delay in good order to Bussey & Company, at New Orleans."

It was alleged by the plaintiffs, that the defendant had neglected to deliver the barge and her valuable cargo according to its contract. The first contention in the defendant's defense was that it was not a common carrier.

Justice Howe gave the opinion. The court held that: "A towboat used in towing barges or other water craft, for all persons and for hire, loaded with freight from one point to another on the river, is a common carrier, and the owners of such a towboat, who undertake to tow a barge and its cargo from one given point to another, first giving a bill of lading, are liable for the delivery of the cargo at the point of destination, the same as if it had been placed on board the towboat itself." Bussey & Company, therefore, could recover.

Ruling Law. Story Case Answer

A common carrier is one who undertakes to transport persons or goods or both from place to place, for the public in general, at a stated price. There are many carriers who are not common carriers. A farmer who agrees to help his neighbor haul his grain to market is not a common carrier of grain. Such a person is only a private carrier, and his duties and liabilities are wholly different from that of the common carrier, upon whom the law has from time immemorial imposed extraordinary duties with regard to the goods or persons intrusted to his care.

In the Story Case, we have an example of a common carrier, and, since he is liable as an insurer of his passenger's goods, he must suffer for its loss.