Davis v. John L. Roper Lumber Co.

Background

On June 24, 1918, a shipper delivered a carload of scrap iron to a railroad at New Bern, North Carolina, for transport to Clarksburg, West Virginia. The railroad issued a bill of lading saying the shipment would be delivered only on surrender of the properly endorsed bill and that written claims for loss or failure to deliver had to be made within six months. The freight arrived July 15 and was handed to a local recipient without surrender of the bill and without the shipper’s knowledge. The shipper made no claim until March 5, 1920, more than nineteen months later. A Virginia trial court awarded the shipper $1,046.88 and the state supreme court affirmed.

Reasoning

The main question was whether that misdelivery counts as "damage in transit" under the federal statute, which would remove the bill-of-lading requirement to give notice. The Court examined the statute’s proviso and previous interpretation and held that the proviso covers three separate classes—delay, damage while loading or unloading, and damage in transit caused by carelessness or negligence—and does not include misdelivery. It concluded misdelivery is a failure to make delivery and therefore the bill of lading’s claim deadline still applies. The Court also said a separate law making carriers liable for wrongful delivery does not excuse the shipper’s failure to comply with the contract’s time limits.

Real world impact

The Court reversed the state-court judgment and sent the case back for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Practically, the decision means carriers can rely on bill-of-lading claim deadlines when goods are misdelivered, and shippers who wait many months to complain may lose the right to recover. Nothing in the statutes cited by the shipper was held to excuse the long delay in making a claim.