Convey-All Corp. v. Pacific Intermountain Express Co.

Convey-All Corporation and Centennial Insurance Company appeal from a judgment after nonjury trial, denying recovery in an action against respondent Pacific Intermountain Express Company, Inc. (PIE). Convey-All sued respondent, an interstate motor carrier, for the cost of repairing industrial equipment which was damaged in shipment. Centennial, Convey-All’s insurer, later joined the action as a plaintiff. The appeal turns on the nature of the shipper’s burden of proof in an action for damages against a common carrier.

Convey-All shipped from Mansfield, Ohio, component parts of a tire-tread cooling line to be installed at a Firestone plant under construction in Salinas, California. Convey-All loaded and secured the equipment in a trailer provided by PIE. PIE picked up the trailer, along with three others, on February 28, 1974, and delivered it to Salinas twelve days later. The bill of lading bore a printed notation that the equipment was “in apparent good order.” “SLC” (Shipper’s Load and Count) was handwritten on the bottom of the bill, indicating that Convey-All had loaded the shipment.

When the trailer arrived in Salinas, damage was immediately apparent. The back of…