WM. R. VANCE, Yale University Law School, General Editor Administrative Law-By Ernst Freund, Professor of Law, Chicago University. Contracts-By Arthur L. Corbin, Professor of Law, Yale University. Corporations, 2d Ed.-By Harry S. Richards, Dean of the University of Wisconsin Criminal Law, 2d Ed.-By William E. Mikell, Dean of the University of Pennsyl- Criminal Procedure-By William E. Mikell, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Damages-By Floyd R. Mechem, Professor of Law, Chicago University, and Barry Equity-By Walter W. Cook; Professor of Law, Yale University, volumes. Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure-By Harold R. Medina, Associate Professor of Future Interests-By Richard R. Powell, Professor of Law, Columbia University, International Law-By James Brown Scott, Lecturer on International Law at the fornia. Mortgages-By James L. Parks, Professor of Law, University of Missouri. Oil and Gas-By Victor H. Kulp, Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma. Pleading (Code)-By Archibald H. 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PAUL, MINNESOTA C17717-1b ON THE LAW OF CARRIERS INCLUDING THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE, BILLS OF LADING BY FREDERICK GREEN PROFESSOR OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AMERICAN CASEBOOK SERIES WILLIAM REYNOLDS VANCE GENERAL EDITOR SECOND EDITION ST. PAUL WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY 1927 COPYRIGHT, 1910 BY WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1927 BY WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY GREEN CARR. (2D ED.) PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION AS THE law of public service has been chiefly developed in regulating the conduct of the business of carriage, its principles may profitably be studied in the extensive and systematic application which they have received in connection with carriage at the hands of legislatures, commissions, and courts. That is the subject of the last part of this book. But it is intended to exhibit the law of carriers as including much more than the law of public service. To make insurance a public calling would not alter the nature of a policy or make obsolete the present law of insurance, and, similarly, to require a carrier to perform his services adequately and impartially does not, of itself, alter the services, or displace the law that governs them. It is believed that carriage, like insurance, is a peculiar undertaking, whose obligations, founded on custom, have had their primary development within the field of contract, and that a study of the law of carriage should begin with a consideration of the carrier's undertaking in that light. As with insurance, so with carriage, many important rules first appear in maritime affairs. This seems to be true of most of the law of freight, of deviation, and of the duty to protect passengers and goods from attack, and to rescue them from peril. The vicissitudes of sea voyages, and the early conception of a voyage as a joint adventure of shipowner, merchants, and mariners, lend these rules significance. Accordingly, Part I, which deals with elementary matters, touches on the duties and liabilities peculiar to common carriers only sufficiently to make a student aware of fundamental distinctions and able to understand allusions to them in opinions; Parts II and III deal with matters that apply to carriage, as such, whether the carrier be public or private; and Part IV takes up in detail the exceptional liability peculiar to common carriers. Thus, for example, Morrison v. McFadden, dealing with what constitutes loss by act of God, is far removed from Reed v. Spaulding, concerning the effect of delay, when equivalent to deviation, in making a carrier, public or private, liable for loss, whether by act of God or not. It is hoped that such a separation of topics may make it easier to discriminate between some matters occasionally confused. Francis Bacon (De Augmentis Scientiarum, Book II, chapter II) said: "Man has no power over Nature, except that of motion; he can put natural bodies together and he can separate them; it is Na (v) ture which governs everything." John Stuart Mill (Principles of Political Economy, Book I, chapter 1, section 2) repeats this thought, saying: "Man * * * only moves one thing to or from another," and in a footnote gives his father credit for having originated the idea. Since all activity consists in moving things, the moving which is carriage needs to be distinguished from other moving. Though the cases are by no means explicit, this is attempted in the chapter called "What is Carriage?" It has been thought best to reprint the first four parts of the book without change in the text of the first edition, leaving the omission of cases or topics less important now than formerly to the instructor's discretion. The notes, however, have been changed in several instances to include later decisions and citations. The rest of the book is entirely new. Part V deals with the state and federal Bills of Lading Acts. It includes such provisions of the Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act as are in principle like the Bills of Lading Acts. Thus, Part V, in connection with the first part of the book, which develops the general principles of a bailee's liability, affords material for a study of the law of warehousemen. Part VI deals, not only with the statutory regulation of rates, service, and liability, but also with the system of remedies which is so vital an element in the regulatory scheme; that is to say, the control over carriers exercised respectively by courts and by commissions, and the judicial review of commission orders. On all these points an endeavor is made to indicate in the notes the extent to which the federal principles of regulation have been followed or departed from in the various states. In many instances it was found advisable to use only a part of the opinion. The omissions in such cases have been indicated by asterisks. FREDERICK GREEN. COLLEGE OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, June 23, 1927. |