274 



CARHYTXG HORSES. 



General effect 

 of these 

 decisions. 



What Condi- 

 tions are just 

 and reason- 

 able, and 

 what not. 



To be free 

 from all risks 

 in respect of 

 damage — 

 Cattle suffo- 

 cated. 



Thus then the effect of the 7tli section of the Railway 

 and Canal Traffic Act {q) has been determined by the 

 foregoing decisions to be this: — First, to make Greneral 

 Notices given by Companies under this Statute, for the 

 purpose of limiting their Common Law liability as Car- 

 riers, invalid ; and, secondly, to make the words " Special 

 Contract " and " Condition " in the 7th section synony- 

 mous terms, to the extent of permitting the Common Law 

 liability of such Companies to be limited by such Condi- 

 tions, or such Special Contract, signed by the owner or 

 his agent for delivering the goods, as the Court or Judge 

 shall determine to be just and reasonable. 



It is therefore important to consider what Conditions 

 have been held to be just and reasonable, and what have 

 been held not to be so. For no rule of universal applica- 

 tion can be laid down with respect to what is a mixed 

 question of law and fact, inasmuch as a reasonable Con- 

 dition may be applied to a state of facts which makes it 

 unreasonable {>•). 



In the case of Pardiugfon v. Soidh Western Railicay 

 Comjxuvf (s), a person sending cattle by railway signed 

 a Contract containing the following amongst other Con- 

 dition : — " A pass for a drover to ride with his stock, 

 the Company is to be held free from all risks in respect 

 of any damages arising in the loading or unloading, from 

 suffocation or from being trampled upon, bruised, or 

 otherwise injured in transit, from fire, or from any other 

 cause whatsoever." A drover received a pass to go with 

 the cattle. The cattle were not put into proper cattle- 

 trucks, but into vans closing with lids ordinarily used 

 for the conveyance of salt, and this was done with the 

 consent, or, at all events, without any objection on the 

 part of the drover. The lid of one of the vans having 

 become closed in the course of the journey, several of 

 the cattle were suffocated. The drover travelled in the 

 same carriage with the Gruard, and did not get out during 

 the journey to look at the cattle. The Jury having 

 found that the cattle were suffocated dm-ing the transit, 

 Alderson, B , directed a verdict to be entered for the de- 

 fendants, giving leave to the plaintiffs to move to enter a 

 verdict for 135/. if the Court thought that the Conditions 

 were unreasonable. The Court refused a rule, and con- 



{(]) 17 & 18 Vict. c. 31, s. 7. 



(r) Per Martin, B., in Grcgor>j v. 

 West Midkuid Eailuat/ Co., 33 L. J., 

 Ex. 155. 



(.s) Fardiiiffton y. South IVestcni 

 Raihmy Co., 1 H. & N. 392 ; and 

 see Wise v. Great Western Railway 

 Co., 1 H. & N. 63 ; 25 L. J., Ex. 258. 



