Heineman v. Grand Trunk Railway Co.
Superior Court of Buffalo
This action was brought to recover damages for injuries sustained by a car load of horses while being transported by the defendant for the plaintiff from Stratford, in Canada West, to Buffalo, in this state, under a special agreement.
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This action was brought to recover damages for injuries sustained by a car load of horses while being transported by the defendant for the plaintiff from Stratford, in Canada West, to Buffalo, in this state, under a special agreement. It is charged in the complaint that the defendant “ carelessly, negligently, wrongfully and willfully,” run the car containing the horses in question on to a side track of its road, and kept them locked up for four days and nights without food or drink, and by its station agent (no other person representing the company being present), refused to permit them to…
1Opinion of the Court
By the court, Hasten, J.
I understand it to be settled law in this state, at the present day, that railroad corporations engaged in the transportation of property are subject to the absolute responsibility which, by the common law, rests upon common carriers; they are, except as against loss or injury occasioned by the act of God or of a public enemy, insurers of the safe transportation and delivery of the property entrusted to them for carriage.
In the carriage of living animals, except as to those injuries which result from the vitality of the freight, and could not by care and diligence be…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Burr v. . BeersNew York Court of Appeals · 1861
- Perkins v. . the New York Central Railroad CompanyNew York Court of Appeals · 1862
- Clarke v. . the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad CompanyNew York Court of Appeals · 1856
3Cited by1 opinion
- Keeney v. Grand Trunk Railway Co.New York Supreme Court · 1870