James v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.

Paul L. James and W. W. Houston, partners trading as Pan Handle Coal Company, were shippers of coal from West Virginia over the Norfolk and Western railway, to the railway company’s piers at Lambert’s Point, Virginia, where the coal was trans-shipped by being dumped into vessels, or reconsigned for local or inland trade. This suit arose out of the trans-shipment of coal by vessel.

The assembling of a cargo of coal in cars at a port for the arrival of a vessel to receive the cargo usually entails delay of some of the cars at the piers, pending the arrival of the remaining cars to complete the…