Young v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co‪.‬

The opinion of the court was delivered by This is an appeal from the trial court's judgment holding that
an initial common carrier was not liable to the shipper for
moneys collected from the consignees on five C.O.D. shipments
which moneys were converted by a delivering common carrier. Briefly summarized, the stipulated facts were that appellant,
Merritt M. Young, had his place of business in Wichita and
appellee was a common carrier incorporated under the laws of the
state of Kansas. During November and December, 1953, appellant
delivered to appellee at its Wichita freight station five C.O.D.
intrastate shipments totaling $843.05 in value. Four of the
shipments were addressed to a consignee at LaCrosse and the fifth
to a consignee at Utica. Appellee's authority under its published
tariffs filed with the state corporation commission (hereinafter
called the commission) did not extend to LaCrosse and Utica but
went only as near thereto as Great Bend. For delivery to the
consignees the shipments were delivered to Kenneth W. Kerbs, Sr.,
doing business as the Midwest Truck Line, as interlining and
delivering carrier. Kenneth W. Kerbs, Sr., delivered the
shipments, collected the C.O.D. moneys and converted them to his
own use. He subsequently was discharged in bankruptcy on June 18,
1954. On February 10, 1954, appellant made demand on appellee for
the total of the C.O.D. amounts, which demand was refused.
Neither appellant nor appellee ever received any money from the
shipments.