Ashton v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.

The defendant company is not liable for the loss of plaintiffs’ lumber unless it was guilty of negligence, regardless of the question of whether the relationship of shipper and carrier was created before the fire occurred. If the course of business pursued by these parties for four years prior to the fire was such as to create the relationship of shipper and carrier without the agent signing the bill of lading, the rights and liabilities of these parties must be determined under the terms of the standard bill of lading which was made out for the car in question by the plaintiffs and mailed to…