titled under the law; and transporta- A claim for refund of the freight 734. C. O. D. shipments.-Claims XV. BAGGAGE See sec. 20 (11), this title, notes 36, Free transportation of baggage, and Baggage car service for perishables, 737. In general.-(No attempt has Cosby v. Richmond Transfer Co., 23 Baggage should be classified as to The courts have held variously with of commission 738. Jurisdiction The commission has no jurisdiction Carriers may make proper and need- Regulations Restricting the Dimen- The free transportation of a limited Unless a railroad carrier undertakes elry, negotiable papers, and like valu- Personal baggage consists of wear- -55 sale. Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. (Editorial comment: The following cases arose under the general law and are cited for convenient reference.) To the extent that articles taken by a passenger for personal use while traveling exceed in quantity and value articles such as are ordinarily taken by persons of like station pursuing journeys they are not baggage for which carriers are responsible as insurers. New York Central & H. R. R. Co. v. Fraloff, 100 U. S. 24, 25 L. ed. 531. A railroad may refuse to receive on passenger trains property other than the baggage of the passenger, or a contract to carry the person only implies an undertaking to transport such a limited quantity of articles as are ordinarily taken by travelers for their personal use and convenience; such quantity depending upon the station of the party, the object and length of the journey, and many other considerations.-Hannibal & St. J. R. Co. v. Swift, 12 Wall. 262, 20 L. ed. 423. A female passenger is entitled to carry with her and retain in her immediate custody as baggage a reasonable quantity of personal effects for her use, comfort, and adornment during the journey, according to her station in life.-Bacon v. Pullman Co., 159 Fed. 1, certiorari denied, Pullman Co. v. Bacon, 210 U. S. 433, 52 L. ed. 1136, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 762; Wilkinson v. Pullman Co., 22 Fed. (2d) 177. 148 U. S. 627, 37 L. ed. 587, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 711. 740. Sample articles.-Sample baggage consists of baggage for the commercial, as distinguished from the personal, use of the passenger, and is restricted to catalogues, models, and samples of goods, wares, or merchandise in trunks or other suitable containers tendered by the passenger for checking as baggage to be transported on a passenger train for use by him in making sales or other disposition of the goods, wares, or merchandise represented thereby.-Jewelers' Protective Union v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 36 I. C. C. 71. 66 Sample baggage" had a meaning well understood, although perhaps not well defined, at the time those words were incorporated in the statute. They must be construed in that meaning, which does not exclude occasional sale or free distribution of the samples carried.-Jewelers' Protective Union v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 36 I. C. C. 71. The difficulty of properly policing the enforcement of any regulation designed to prevent the practice of disposing of samples has bearing upon the reasonableness of such regulation.-Jewelers' Protective Union v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 36 I. C. C. 71. Salesmen's catalogues should be included in the definition of sample baggage.--Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. 741. Excess.-Carriers may reasonably provide that baggage of greater dimension than 45 inches shall be subject to an extra charge for each inch in excess of such maximum dimension equal to the charge for 5 pounds of excess baggage weight.-Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. Baggage rules providing extra charges for any piece of baggage any dimension of which exceeds 45 inches are not unreasonable.-Portland Chamber of Commerce v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 40 I. C. C. 167. 742. Size and shape.-Displacement of space is one of the essential factors to which carriers must necessarily give consideration in furnishing facilities required by law.-Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. A rule which prohibits acceptance of baggage above certain dimensions should not exclude pieces which do not exceed 72 inches.-Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. Upon notice of not less than one year, carriers may provide that containers with more than two bulging sides, or two bulging sides not opposite to each other, will not be accepted for checking as baggage.-Regulations Restricting the Dimensions of Baggage, 26 I. C. C. 292. Proposed rule restricting the shape of baggage is unreasonable in so far as it is intended to exclude from the regular baggage service pentagonal trunks which are within the present limits as to weight and dimensions.Regulations Restricting the Shape of Baggage, 33 I. C. C. 266. 743. Chautauqua equipment.-Rules and theatrical and regulations providing for the free transportation of one special baggage car containing paraphernalia, if the persons traveling on the same train with it number 25 or more, are reasonable.-EllisonWhite Chautauqua System v. Director General, 68 I. C. C. 492; Coit-Alber Chautauqua System v. Albany & S. R. Co., 85 I. C. C. 357. Baggage service is an incident to the transportation of passengers. Clearly the movement of Chautauqua equipment is not connected with that of the talent, which moves almost invariably at different times, over different routes, and sometimes over different roads.-Coit-Alber Chautauqua Co. Rules denying to owners of traveling tent shows who engage special baggage cars the right to check, in regular passenger service, the usual 150 pounds of baggage allowed on each adult ticket, are not justified.—Baggage From and Between Southern Points, 112 I. C. C. 717. Stage costumes, scenery, and the like, making up the paraphernalia of a traveling theatrical company, do not constitute personal baggage which a carrier impliedly contracts to carry without compensation on the tickets of the company as passengers, unless a general custom to do so is shown; and they must be shipped as freight under the customary regulations, or by special arrangement therefor.--Saunders v. Southern Ry. Co., 128 Fed. 15. --- 744. Through checking. Through checking of baggage may properly be accorded under tariff authority, upon presentation to the initial carrier of a combination of tickets covering the entire journey, in which may be included mileage, excursion, and commutation tickets; but it is unlawful to check baggage beyond the point to which a ticket is presented upon the mere declaration of intention to go farther.-In re Mileage, Excursion, and Commutation Tickets, 23 I. C. C. 95. A rule prohibiting through checking of baggage on combination tickets is not justified.-Kurtz v. Pennsylvania Co., 16 I. C. C. 410; Rules and Regulations Governing Checking of Baggage, 35 I. C. C. 157. 745. Checks or receipts. Section 20 (11) of this title does not require other receipts than baggage checks for baggage. Such checks are receipts, and there is no special requirement in the statute as to their form. The commission may require checks or receipts to be given for baggage if that subject needs regulation.-Boston & M. R. Co. v. Hooker, 233 U. S. 97, 58 L. ed. v. Albany & S. R. Co., 85 I. C. C. 357. | 868, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 526. Section 1. (7) Free transportation for passengers prohibited; exceptions; penalty.-No common carrier subject to the provisions of this chapter, shall, directly or indirectly, issue or give any interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation for passengers, except to its employees and their families, its officers, agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law; to ministers of religion, traveling secretaries of railroad Young Men's Christian Associations, inmates of hospitals and charitable and eleemosynary institutions, and persons exclusively engaged in charitable and eleemosynary work; to indigent, destitute, and homeless persons, and to such persons when transported by charitable societies or hospitals, and the necessary agents employed in such transportation; to inmates of the National Homes or State Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and of Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge; to necessary caretakers of livestock, poultry," milk, and fruit; to employees on sleeping cars, express cars, and to linemen of telegraph and telephone companies; to Railway Mail Service employees, post-office inspectors, customs inspectors, and immigration inspectors; to newsboys on trains, baggage agents, witnesses attending any legal investigation in which the common carrier is interested, persons injured in wrecks and physicians and nurses attending such persons: Provided, That this provision shall not be construed to prohibit the interchange of passes for the officers, agents, and employees of common carriers, and their families; nor to prohibit any common carrier from carrying passengers free with the object of providing relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, or other calamitous visitation: And provided further, That this provision shall not be construed to prohibit the privilege of passes or franks, or the exchange thereof with each other, for the officers, agents, employees, and their families of such telegraph, telephone, and cable lines, and the officers, agents, employees and their families of other common carriers subject to the provisions of this chapter: Provided further, That the term "employees" as used in this paragraph shall include furloughed, pensioned, and superannuated employees, persons who have become disabled or in 8 9 1"act" instead of "chapter " in original act; changed by code. 6 2" after January first, nineteen hundred and seven," in original act at this point omitted by code. 3 The 1908 act inserted a comma at this point; omitted by code. 4" and boards of managers of such Homes" in original act at this point omitted by 1910 act. 5" milk added by 1910 act. • Next proviso added by 1910 act. A comma in 1910 act at this point omitted by code. 8" act" instead of "chapter " in 1910 act; changed by code. * while in the service of any such common carrier.", excepting change in note 10, added by 1908 act. firm in the service of any such common carrier, and the remains of a person killed in the employment of a carrier and ex-employees traveling for the purpose of entering the service of any such common carrier; and the term "families" as used in this paragraph shall include the families of those persons named in this proviso, also the families of persons killed,10 and the widows during widowhood and minor children during minority of persons who died, while in the service of any such common carrier. Any common carrier violating this provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,11 and for each offense, on conviction, shall pay to the United States a penalty of not less than $100 nor more than $2,000, and any person, other than the persons excepted in this provision, who uses any such interstate free ticket, free pass, or free transportation shall be subject to a like penalty. Jurisdiction of offenses under this provision shall be the same as that provided for offenses in 12 sections 41, 42, and 43 of chapter 2 of this title. (June 29, 1906, c. 3591, sec. 1, 34 Stat. 584; Apr. 13, 1908, c. 143, 35 Stat. 60; June 18, 1910, c. 309, sec. 7, 36 Stat. 544; 13 Feb. 28, 1920, c. 91, sec. 401, 41 Stat. 475.) For text of complete section, of which this paragraph is a part, see pp. 5-14, ante. Historical Note The acts of Apr. 13, 1908, and June 18, 1910, amended the paragraph to read as therein stated, as shown in the footnotes. Prior to the Hepburn Act of June 29, 1906, the issuance or use of passes was not specifically prohibited, although held by the commission and the courts to be in violation of the act to regulate commerce in other respects. Continuance of the practice, despite those conclusions, led to the enactment of this paragraph. Cross References See sec. 22 (1), this title, as to free or reduced rate transportation. Sec. 53, this title, as to trustees of Cincinnati Southern Ry. Title 39, sec. 523, as to certain officials and employees of the Post Office Department. 10" and the widows * Employees. Families of employees. Telegraph and telephone linemen. of persons who died" added by 1910 act. 11 A comma inserted by 1910 act at this point omitted by code. 12" an Act entitled 'an Act to further regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the States,' approved February nineteenth, nineteen hundred and three, and any amendment thereof" instead of "sections of this title " in 1908 act; changed by code. 18 Numbered the paragraph. |