Atwood v. Reliance Transportation Co.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the district court of Allegheny county. This was an action against the Reliance Transportation Company as common carriers on the Pennsylvania canal.
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ERROR to the district court of Allegheny county. This was an action against the Reliance Transportation Company as common carriers on the Pennsylvania canal. The goods, consisting of teas, dry goods, hardware, and shoes, were received at Philadelphia the 28d of April 1836,-on board the defendant’s towboat, the Columbia, on terms of delivery in sixteen days to the plaintiff in Pittsburg, “in good order, the dangers of the navigation, fire, leakage, and all other unavoidable accidents, excepted.” The boat proceeded on her trip and arrived at Harrisburg in the morning of the 4th of May, where…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
The maxitn that any one may dispense with a rule provided for his exclusive benefit, is not without its exceptions; and notwithstanding the unfortunate direction given to the decisions at an early day, it is still almost susceptible of a doubt whether an agreement to lessen the common law measure of a carrier’s responsibility, like an agreement to forego a fee-simple tenant’s right of alienation, or a mortgagor’s right of redemption, is not void by the policy of the law. That the bailor is left as much at another’s mercy, by an agreement…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Hand v. BaynesSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1839
3Cited by14 opinions
- New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. MERCHANTS'BANK.Supreme Court of the United States · 1848
- York Company v. Central RailroadSupreme Court of the United States · 1866
- Steele v. TownsendSupreme Court of Alabama · 1861
- Bingham v. RogersSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1843
- Allam v. Pennsylvania RailroadSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1897
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