Pioneer Fruit Co. v. Southern Pacific Co.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff to recover from e the defendant the sum of $2,576.25, damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff in connection with the shipment of a carload of cherries from San Jose, California, to Boston, Massachusetts, during the month of June, 1913, and which were consigned by the plaintiff to a corporation known as California Fruit Distributors through the defendant as shipper, upon a bill of lading issued in compliance with the Interstate Commerce Act. The plaintiff’s claim was based upon two alleged breaches of the contract of shipment in that, first, the defendant allowed the car in which these cherries were transported to be insufficiently iced; second, that the defendant permitted an unreasonable delay to occur in the shipment of the cherries, as a result of both of which alleged breaches of the terms of shipment the cherries arrived in Boston in a damaged condition to the plaintiff’s detriment in the sum for which suit was brought. The defendant denied specifically the averments of the complaint as to any breach of its duty as a carrier in the premises, and also pleaded that the plaintiff’s cause of action was barred under the…