Lang v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Appeal, No. 258, Jan. T., 1893, by defendant, from judgment of G. P. No. 2, Phila. Co., Dec. T., 1889, No. 274, on verdict for plaintiff, Lewis Lang, trading as Lang, Burnheimer & Co. Trespass for loss of goods by common carrier. At the trial, before Fell, J., it appeared that the train containing ten barrels of' plaintiff’s whisky reached Conemangh at nine o’clock on the morning of May 31,1889. Owing to heavy rains the train was detained by a washout.
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Appeal, No. 258, Jan. T., 1893, by defendant, from judgment of G. P. No. 2, Phila. Co., Dec. T., 1889, No. 274, on verdict for plaintiff, Lewis Lang, trading as Lang, Burnheimer & Co. Trespass for loss of goods by common carrier. At the trial, before Fell, J., it appeared that the train containing ten barrels of' plaintiff’s whisky reached Conemangh at nine o’clock on the morning of May 31,1889. Owing to heavy rains the train was detained by a washout. At four o’clock in the afternoon of the same day the dam above Conemaugh broke, resulting in the Johnstown flood. About half of the cars of…
1Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Mr. Justice Williams,
The defendant is sued as a common carrier for its failure to deliver a quantity of whisky shipped over its line of road. The defence set up is that the whisky was lost in the Johnstown flood. The train was overtaken by the flood but it was not swept away. After the avalanche of water caused by the breaking of the South Fork dam had passed, the train was left upon the track, and the cars were uninjured. The track above and below it was injured so that the train could not resume its *347journey at once, but remained in the same place until the necessary repairs were…
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