John Hessin Clarke

“ The Carmack and Cummins Amendments were enacted to enable the holder of a bill of lading to sue the initial carrier for any loss or damage to property suffered on any part of a through route, and thereby to relieve him from the necessity of searching out and proving a case against a terminal or intermediate carrier. ”

“ Having regard to the customary methods of doing a through business in this country it may have been important to have given like rights against others of connecting carriers, but plainly, either from design or accident, the terms of the amendment limit its application to the initial carrier. ”

“ Croninger, 226 U.S. 491, 511, 57 L. Ed. 314, 44 L. R. A. [N. S.] 257) , and therefore their liability is as we have stated it unless modified by contract, and in this case, as we have seen, the live stock contract, under which the shipment moved, by expressly providing that 'no carrier (other than the initial carrier) shall be liable for damage for loss, death, injury or delay to said animals, or any thereof, not caused by it' leaves the common-law liability of the intermediate carrier entirely unaffected, just as the statute leaves it. ”