Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/464

This page needs to be proofread.
440
48 NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS

Decision

The evidence in the record favorable to the plaintiffs has been so stated for the reason that the issues of fact involved have been determined by the verdict of the jury adversely to the testimony favorable to the carrier. First State Bank v. Kelly, 30 N. D. 84, 98, 152 N. W. 125, Ann. Cas. 1917D, 1044; Dubs v. Nor. Pac., 171 N. W. 888; Jackson v. Grand Forks, 24 N. D. 617, 140 N. W. 718, 45 L. R. A. (N. S.) 75.

The general rule undoubtedly is that it is the duty of the carrier, as an incident to the business of transporting cattle, to furnish suitable stockyards for receiving and delivering such cattle both at the point of shipment and of destination. 10 C. J. 79, and cases cited; Hutchinson on Carriers (3d ed.) § 510. As Justice Harlan stated in Covington Stockyard Co. v. Keith, 139 U. S. 128, 11 Sup. Ct. 461, 35 L. ed. 73:

“When animals are offered to a carrier of live stock to be transported it is its duty to receive them; and that duty cannot be efficiently discharged, at least in a town or city, without the aid of yards in which the stock offered for shipment can be received and handled with safety and without inconvenience to the public while being loaded upon the cars in which they are to be transported.” “In other words, the duty to receive, transport and deliver live stock will not be fully discharged, unless the carrier makes such provision, at the place of loading, as will enable it to properly receive and load the stock, and such provision, at the place of unloading, as will enable it to properly deliver the stock to the consignee.”

In Zakrazewski v. G. N. Ry., 125 Minn. 125, 145 N. W. 801, 802, it is stated:

“There ought to be no doubt upon the proposition that, at those shipping points of a common carrier where stock pens or yards are reasonably necessary, the duty rests upon the carrier to furnish the same in such condition and with such facilities for handling and caring for stock that the shipper can, with a reasonable degree of safety and convenience, assemble and attend to the wants of the animals so that when loaded they are in a fit condition to stand the hardships of the journey.”

See Id. 131 Minn. 175, 154 N. W. 966; St. Louis & San Francisco Ry. v. Beets, 75 Kan. 295, 89 Pac. 683, 10 L. R. A. (N. S.) 571; Ft. Worth & G. R. Ry. v. Galton, 45 Tex. Civ. App. 67, 100 S. W. 166.