Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — Liability of Railroad Companies for Losing Valuable Baggage. [ARTICLE]

Liability of Railroad Companies for Losing Valuable Baggage.

Some time ago the Russian Baroness Olga de Maluta Fraloff, in the United States Circuit Court, got a verdict against the New York Central & Railroad Company for SIO,OOO in a suit brought by her to recover $62,000 for a trunk filled with laces which was lost or stolen from a baggage-car while she was traveling between New York and Haratoga on that road. A motion for a new trial was made before Judge Wallace, and he reserved his decision till yesterday, when he gave one, in which he says: “ The facts upon which the verdict of the jury is predicated are so unusual, and the amount of the recovery in view of the nature of the action is 60 exceptional, that this motion deserves and has received careful consideration; but notwithstanding the very elaborate and able argument of defendant’s counsel and my own inclination to dissent from the conclusions of the jury upon one of tlie vital questions of fact I am convinced that the case presented is not within the rules which authorize a verdict to be set aside as contrary to evidence. Among other things the jury were instructed that they were to decide as a question of fact, under the rules defined by the court, whether or not the laces in question were baggage. The jury must have found that laces of the vakie of SIO,OOO carried by a traveler, with a large assortment of other articles ol apparel for personal use, are reasonable and ordinary baggage, for the loss of which a carrier to whom they may have been delivered without notice of their value is responsible. On first impression the statement of this conclusion raises a somewhat 'violent presumption against the correctness of the verdict. No precedent for a recovery so laVge has been found, and if it is sustained it is difficult to ascertain where the limit of a carrier’s liability exists.” He cited numerous authorities and conduded by sustaining the finding of the jury and denying the motion for a new trial. —New York World, April 2. Silks that “stand alone” now give plaqe to softer ones.