by John Marshall Harlan

“ As the goods had not, at the time of the fire, passed into the actual custody of the steamship company, and as the contract expressly declared that, if any carrier was liable for their destruction, that one alone should be liable in whose actual custody the goods were when destroyed, the defendant could not escape responsibility by showing that the connecting could, by reasonable diligence, have taken actual custody prior to the fire. ”

“ In other words, the delivery to the connecting carrier which would, as between the first carrier and the shipper, terminate the liability of such carrier, must have been a delivery that put the cotton into the actual, not constructive, custody of the connecting carrier. To hold otherwise is to eliminate from the contract the clause relating to actual custody. The entire argument of the learned counsel for the railway company in effect assumes that the contract means no more than it would mean if that clause were omitted. ”

“ Whenever the agent o the Michigan Central Company saw any goods deposited in the section of the freight building used by the Grand Trunk Company, and which were to be carried over the line of the former company, he would call on the agent of the latter company in the building, and, from the waybill exhibited by the agent of the Grand Trunk Company, take a list of such goods, and would then, for the first time, learn their place of destination, together with the amount of freight charges due thereon. ”