California Powder Works v. Atlantic & Pacific R.R.

Plaintiff brought its action to recover from defendant the value of a carload of blasting powder destroyed while in transit upon defendant’s railroad.

The findings are not attacked. It is claimed, however, that they do not support the judgment. It is also contended that the court erred in admitting in evidence a certain shipping order.

The facts disclosed by the findings are the following: Plaintiff was a manufacturer of powder; its factory was situated at Santa Cruz, California. It had for many *331 years been in the habit of shipping its products over the line of the Southern Pacific Company, and of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, defendant herein. When the shipment was designed for a point upon the line of the defendant company, the powder was received by the agent of the Southern Pacific Company at San Jose, acting for the defendant company, and by this agent a shipping order was taken and a bill of lading returned therefor. Santa Cruz, the place of manufacture of the powder, is connected with San Jose by a narrow gauge railroad owned or controlled by the Southern Pacific Company. At San Jose the depots of the narrow gauge railroad and of the broad gauge railroad,…