Fox v London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1926
• Docket Number: (1924. No. 10223.)
• Date: 01 January 1926
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

S. C.,

Fox

and

London, Midland, and Scottish Railway Co

Conditions limiting liability - Reasonableness - Express statutory limitation of liability - Injury to valuable horse - Declaration of value by sender -Unauthorised declaration by servant - Declaration not made with the intention of forming a contract - Rates for carriage of live stock - Negligence -Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 1854 (17 18 Vict., c. 31), s. 7.

A railway company made conditions limiting their liability for loss of or damage to any live stock delivered to them for transit beyond the value —in the case of horses —of £50, unless a higher value was declared in writing at the time of delivery, and a percentage of 1¹/₄ per cent. paid on the value, so declared, in excess of the above-named sum. A race horse, exceeding £50 in value, was delivered to the railway company for transit by the sender's groom, who had not been instructed to declare the value of the animal at the time of delivery to the company, and was told to forward the horse at the "ordinary rates in the ordinary way"When booking the horse the groom informed the clerk that he had got "a very valuable 'chaser, worth about £1,000" —a figure arrived at by the groom himself from casual gossip. The clerk thereupon placed before the groom the company's form of "consignment note and waybill" for live stock to complete and sign. The groom filled this in for the carriage of the horse at the ordinary rate, and signed it, with full knowledge of its contents. The horse was injured in transit, and had to be destroyed. The owner of the horse sued the company to recover damages for the loss of the horse through negligence. The jury found, (1) that the defendants' servants were guilty of negligence; (2) that the injury to the horse was not caused solely by his inherent vice; and (3) that his value was £395. Sullivan, P., held that the conditions in the consignment note and waybill for live stock were just and reasonable and binding on the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover more than £50. On a motion for a new trial: —Held by...