Stanley Matthews

“ A common carrier's liability is of an extraordinary character, and covers every risk that the property can be subject to, except a loss by the act of God or by an unavoidable accident, and by the public enemy, unless this extraordinary liability which the law imposes is limited or restricted by the contract between the parties, so that this extraordinary liability, as a common carrier, did not commence until the property was actually loaded or taken for transportation ”

“ The execution of the bills of lading, which are the written instruments on which the action is founded, is not denied by anything set up on the part of the defendant below. Their existence and validity, so far as their form and terms are involved, are not in question. ”

“ In either view, we think it erroneous. If intended as a qualification of the preceding instruction, it does not have the effect of correcting it in the particulars in which we have found it to be erroneous. ”