Contract of carriage

“ By analogy, contract carriage may be more 'economical' than common carriage by motor or rail within the framework of the national transportation policy, as it is defined in the Act [6] -'the Commission's guide' to the public interest. McLean Trucking Co. v. United States, 321 U.S. 67, 82, 64 S.Ct. 370, 378, 88 L.Ed. 544. It would seem hardly contestable that if denial of the application meant, for example, that a shipper's costs of transportation would be prohibitive, the shipper had established a 'need' for the more 'economical' service. ”

“ But the principle recognized is that, in the absence of Congressional legislation upon the subject, a state may require a common carrier, although in the execution of a contract for interstate carriage, to use great care and diligence in the carrying of passengers and transportation of goods, and to be liable for the whole loss resulting from negligence in the discharge of its duties. ”

“ For we must remember that Congress has chosen in the Motor Carrier Act to regulate motor transportation not by the forces of competition but by impartial administration through an expert body. No doubt contract carriage is frequently preferred by shippers for the advantages, chiefly in flexibility of operations, that it may hold over available common carriage. ”

“ Congress, in subjecting 'private' motor carriage only to safety regulation, did not mean otherwise to regulate interstate transportation by persons of 'their own goods in their own vehicles for commercial purposes' (79 Cong.Rec. 5651 (1935) , remarks of Senator Wheeler, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce) ; [30] (2) one engaged in the business of leasing motor vehicles for commercial carriage is not by that fact alone made a 'contract carrier,' subject to full Commission regulation; in other words, equipment rentals as such are not reached by the statute. ”

“ Once granted a permit, therefore, a contract carrier may exploit its inherent cost advantages to the great detriment of existing common carriers. In determining to ignore those cost advantages in an application proceeding, the Commission acts well within its authority to effectuate the congressional policy of limiting entrance to contract carriage as a means of preserving the capacity of available common carriers to meet the Nation's transportation needs. ”

“ The responsibilities of a common carrier may be reduced to those of an ordinary bailee for hire, whilst the nature of his business renders him a common carrier still. Is there any good sense in holding that a railroad company, whose only business is to carry passengers and goods, and which was created and established for that purpose alone, is changed to a private carrier for hire by a mere contract with a customer, whereby the latter assumes the risk of inevitable accidents in the carriage of his goods. ”

“ The manifest intent of such a regulation was to protect the shipper, by having it clearly manifested by his signature that his attention had been directed to the contract limitation of liability, so that no question might arise of inadvertence on his part in delivering the merchandise and accepting the contract f r its carriage, which is usually prepared by the railroad company receiving goods for transportation. ”

“ There a passenger sought to charge a common carrier for an injury occasioned by the breaking of an axle by reason of a hidden flaw; and the court of exchequer chamber held that a contract made by a general carrier of passengers for hire with a passenger is to take due care (including in that term the use of skill and foresight) to carry the passenger safely, and is not a warranty that the carriage in which he travels shall be free from all defects likely to cause peril, although those defects were such that no skill, care, or foresight could have detected their existence. ”

“ On the other hand, the cab service is exclusively rendered within the limits of the city. It is contracted and paid for independently of any contract or payment for strictly interstate transportation. The party receiving it owes no legal duty of crossing the state line.
Undoubtedly, a single act of carriage or transportation wholly within a state may be part of a continuous interstate carriage or transportation. Goods shipped from Albany to Philadelphia may be carried by the New York Central Railroad only within the limits of New York, and yet that service is in interstate carriage. ”

“ It is needless to go into the early statutes or to do more than to refer to Rev. Stat. § 3999 (Comp. St. § 7478) , which authorizes him to make other arrangements if he cannot contract for the carriage of the mail upon a railway route at a compensation not exceeding the maximum rates then established, or for what he deems reasonable and fair. The limitations upon the power were in the interest of the business, the principal one being that the pay per mile per annum should not exceed certain rates. ”

“ The greater part of the freight transported moves under a bill of lading, which constitutes a receipt for the property and a contract for its carriage. Efforts have been made from time to time to secure the adoption and use by all carriers of a uniform bill of lading, but no such effort has been entirely successful. ”

“ As to carriers of goods or baggage taking pay and giving checks or tickets through, the first company is ordinarily liable for the entire route; [640] and in England it has been decided [641] that where a railway company contracts to carry a passenger from one terminus to another, and on the journey the train has to pass over the line of another railway company, the company issuing the ticket incurs the same responsibility as that other company, over whose line the train runs and by whose default the accident happens, would incur if the contract to carry had been entered into by them. ”

“ It may refuse to receive on the passenger train property other than the baggage of the passenger, for a contract to carry the person only implies an undertaking to transport such a limited quantity of articles as are ordinarily taken by travellers for their personal use and convenience ”

“ Upon the merits, the appellants present the argument that a railway company, in the transportation or movement of an office car of another carrier, acts in the capacity of a private carrier, or bailee, and retains full freedom of contract in relation to such transportation. There is no doubt that common carriers, subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, may have activities which lie outside the performance of their duties as common carriers and are not subject to the provisions of the act. ”

“ But if property offered with the passenger is not represented to be baggage, and it is not so packed as to assume that appearance, and it is received for transportation on the passenger train, there is no reason why the carrier shall not be held equally responsible for its safe conveyance as if it were placed on the freight train, an undoubtedly he can make the same charge for its carriage. ”

“ The legal relation must depend upon the contract, as it is obvious that the Terminal Association was under no obligation, as a common carrier, to accept in train loads freight arriving over the Peoria road, with cars consigned to different points and over different connections, and to subject itself, as a common carrier, to the hazard of sorting out the cars contained in such trains, and this also without delivery to it of way bills showing the further destination of such cars. ”

“ Do the terms of the Cummins Amendment apply to the transportation of baggage?
This must apparently be answered in the affirmative. Transportation of baggage is a part of the contract for transportation of the passenger. The carriers have always limited their liability for loss of or damage to baggage. The baggage check is the carrier's receipt for the baggage. The conditions attached to the carrier's liability are stated in the fare schedules and on passage tickets of contract form. ”

“ Contract carriers include those, other than common carriers, who haul for hire by motor vehicle on any road of the State. § 3. Exempted from the challenged regulation are those transporting products of their own manufacture or labor (§ 3) , and motor vehicles not principally engaged in the transportation of property for hire or operating exclusively in a city or town or within 10 miles of its limits or beyond the 10-mile limit on not more than two trips in 30 days. ”

“ If one has left the train in which he started on his journey, the fact that he has subsequently entered another train and travelled over a part of the remaining distance without being required to pay fare by the conductor in charge, does not prejudice the company or renew the contract. ”

“ Congress has set that forth for us broadly in the declaration of policy [6] -in essence it is the regulation of transportation by motor carriers in the public interest so as to achieve adequate, efficient and economical service. To implement that policy Congress forbade common carriers by motor vehicle to operate in interstate commerce without securing a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Commission, [7] and required contract carriers to secure a permit from that body. ”

“ The receiving carrier makes the rate and the route, and as the agent of every such connecting carrier executes a contract which is to bind each of them, 'severally, but not jointly,' one of the terms of the agreement being that each carrier shall be liable only for loss or damage occurring on its own line. ”

“ It is required that such contracts vest exclusive possession of, and responsibility for, the equipment in the authorized carrier during the rental, Rule § 207.4 (a) (4) , the life of which must exceed thirty days when the driver is the owner or his employee. Rule § 207.4 (a) (3) . Finally, the contract must fix the compensation of the lessor, which may not be measured by a percentage of the gross revenue. ”

“ No person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public way in any city or town for the carriage of passengers for hire so as to afford a means of transportation similar to that afforded by a railway company by indiscriminately receiving and discharging passengers along the route on which the vehicle is operated, or as a business between fixed and regular termini, without first obtaining a license. ”

“ V. The land-grant line has been kept in use. The contract is that, where government transportation is wholly over that line, deduction of 50 per cent shall be made and that, where it is partly over that line, there shall be deducted the percentage that aided mileage used is of total haul. But this Court holds that, even if the government elects to have its freight move over a separate and distinct unaided railroad, the plaintiff is bound to apply the percentages applicable to charges for transportation over the aided line. ”

“ They enter into a contract which by its terms protects this increased travel during the whole period, and by whatever causes produced, just as much as it protects the travel existing during the first month after the opening of the road. How then can we engraft upon the contract an exception not found there, and say, that when it speaks generally of passengers travelling upon the road, it does not mean passengers which another railroad corporation has brought there? ”

“ It is argued that a common carrier, by entering into a special contract with a party for carrying his goods or person on modified terms, drops his character and becomes an ordinary bailee for hire, and, therefore, may make any contract he pleases. ”

“ It does not purport to impose an unconditional duty to operate, or to carry passengers, but requires that where and while a passenger service is maintained it shall conform to the standards stated. Such a provision falls far short of subjecting a railroad company, through charter contract or otherwise, to an absolute duty to operate its road for the full charter period, even after it becomes reasonably that the operation will be at a pronounced loss. ”

“ That some of the contracts before mentioned were entered into before the statute was adopted or the order made is not material. A common carrier cannot by making contracts for future transportation or by mortgaging its property or pledging its income prevent or postpone the exertion by the state of the power to regulate the carrier's rates and practices. Nor does the contract clause of the Constitution interpose any obstacle to the exertion of that power. ”

“ We come, then, to consider the challenged provisions of the statute under review, in the light of their exclusive relation to contract carriers, unembarrassed by any previous ruling of this court. In view of the conclusions to which we shall come, it is not necessary to determine whether the operation of trucks for the transportation of freight under private contracts, carried into effect by the use of the public highways, is a business impressed with a public interest. ”

“ I am tired of living for others; of having horses merely to exhibit them; of doing all things for the sake of what may be said of them; of wasting my substance to keep fools from crying out: 'Dear, dear! Paul is still driving the same carriage. What has he done with his fortune? Does he squander it? Does he gamble at the Bourse? No, he's a millionaire. Madame such a one is mad about him. He sent to England for a harness which is certainly the handsomest in all Paris. The four-horse equipages of Messieurs de Marsay and de Manerville were much noticed at Longchamps ”