Wald-Green Food Corp. v. Acme Fast Frgt.

Goetz & Goetz for plaintiff. Clark, Carr & Ellis for defendant. the $117.03. The parties have stipulated that in the event plaintiff is entitled to recover, the damages shall be $633.50. The Supreme Court of the United States in the case of United States v. Chicago Heights Trucking Co. (310 U. S. 344, 345-346) described the nature of the business of freight forwarders as follows:

"Forwarders utilize common carriers by rail and motor truck to transport goods owned by others. They solicit and obtain many small shipments, from various points within an area, and cause them to be carried in less than truck-load or carload lots to a concentration center within the area. There they are assembled by the forwarder for further transportation in truck-load or carload lots. Although the forwarder gives owners of individual small shipments his own contract corresponding in form to through bills of lading and assumes responsibility for safe through carriage, the forwarder customarily arranges for the pickup, assembly and transportation of the shipments by carriers for hire. And the forwarders, not the owners of the goods, select the carriers and route the shipments. Upon arrival of a truck-load or carload of the assembled small shipments at a distribution center, the bulk shipment is broken up, the forwarder separates and takes possession of the original small shipments and arranges, where necessary, their further carriage to their various final destinations in the area served by the particular distribution point. In this final carriage of the small shipment to its ultimate destination, the forwarder again utilizes carriers for hire to move these less than truck-load or carload lots. Thus, forwarders may use the service of carriers to assemble shipments of less than truck-load or carload lots at their concentration center, to transport the assembled truckload or carloads to a distribution center and to carry the broken up small shipments beyond their break-bulk distribution center.

"The forwarding business has been built upon the expectation that a material part of the transportation which it causes to be provided for small shippers can by consolidation of small shipments be obtained at truck-load or carload rates. For the forwarders' business was originally made profitable because it could operate upon the margin of profit represented by the difference between railroad carload rates paid by the forwarder and the higher rates, approximating less than carload rates, which the forwarder charged the owner of a shipment."

established a prima facie case. The defendant not having satisfactorily rebutted the prima facie case, plaintiff is entitled to judgment for the stipulated amount, with interest. (Pereira v. American Ry. Express Co., 207 App. Div. 692; Perkel v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 148 Misc. 284, and cases cited; Bonfiglio v. New York, N. H. & H. R. R. R. Co., 292 Mass. 287, and cases cited; 9 Am. Jur., Carriers, § 835.)