Packard v. Earle
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort against the defendants as common carriers for the loss of a trunk and its contents, intrusted to them to be carried from Providence, Rhode Island, to West Mansfield, Massachusetts, and to be there delivered to the plaintiff.
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Tort against the defendants as common carriers for the loss of a trunk and its contents, intrusted to them to be carried from Providence, Rhode Island, to West Mansfield, Massachusetts, and to be there delivered to the plaintiff. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Pitman, J., it appeared that the defendants were express carriers over the line of the Boston & Providence Railroad from Providence to Boston, and intermediate stations; that the trunk was delivered to them at their office in Providence, on Saturday, March 2, 1872, to be carried by them as expressmen to the plaintiff at West…
1Opinion of the CourtEndicott, J.
It was the duty of the defendants, as common carriers of parcels, to deliver the trunk to the plaintiff personally or at his residence at West Mansfield, and until such delivery their liability as carriers continued. This liability they under took to limit by proof of a usage in their business to leave pack ages sent to West Mansfield at the station, with notice to the consignee, as a substitute for personal delivery. This was not a *283general usage of such a character, that a presumption of knowledge arises by mere force of its existence, and which enters into and becomes part of the agreement…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Sullivan v. ThompsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
3Cited by4 opinions
- A. J. Tower Co. v. Southern Pacific Co.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1904
- Marshall v. PerrySupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1877
- State v. Intoxicating Liquors & Lawrence PembrokeSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1906
- Joseph J. Piazza d-b-a Northeastern Construction Co. v. Railway Express Agency, Inc.Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division · 1957