Mitchell v. North Pacific Steamship Co.

Defendant appeals from the judgment in the sum of $1,437.65 recovered by plaintiff against defendant in an action for damages to postal cards. Plaintiff is a publisher and dealer in postal cards. Defendant is a common carrier of goods and merchandise by water, owning and operating certain steamboats as such between the ports of San Francisco and San Pedro, Los Angeles County. On or about March 25, 1916, plaintiff delivered to defendant at San Pedro 3,907,850 postal cards for transportation to San Francisco, where they arrived in a damaged condition. The cards were packed for shipment in new double cardboard boxes. About twenty per cent of these were inclosed in wooden eases. The balance were tied together with small rope, five boxes in a bundle. In all there were sixty wooden cases and 715 bundles. It was to the cards in the bundles that the damage occurred. Upon arrival of the shipment in San Francisco there was a large stack, between two and three feet high in the center, and about six or eight feet in diameter, consisting of loose cards, torn and dirty, with occasional packages of 100 as they had originally been packed, together with pieces of boxes and a large amount of dirt.…