LIABILITIES OF RAILWAY COMPANIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1849, 24 May 1888, Page 3

LIABILITIES OF RAILWAY COMPANIES.

1 jm _ . The safety of ono'a iuggago at a railway station is a matter which concerns everyone. A case relating to this eul>jio", afror psailDg through all tho Biases of litigation, \ has qalta recently b'^en decided by tha ; House of Lords, and will no douht, bo everywhere quoted as a precedent. A Mrs Butich on Ohrlstmaa Eve, 1834, arrived at Iho Paddlngton Station at 4 20 p.m. to catch the five o'clock train, and, handing over her lug.;«ge to tho care of a porter, went off to meot herhuabaud. Ou returning after ten minutes Bh» f und her labelled luggage nafe ; but a Gladstooe bag, wbloh she told tho porter nhe w»b going to taku m the oirrlage with her, had vanished. It la Gnully deoldod that the !« all way Oomp-iny lv liable -to pay her £18, the value of the bag »nd it; contents. Tbe Lord Ohaaoellor, whose judgment .prevails, holds that the Railway Oouapmy ia responsible for any artlolo during the reasonable time of Its transit from a cab to the tra<ln ; and that on Ohrlsimas Eve it is nfit unreasonable to entrust luggage to a porter as many as forty minutes before the departure of the train. On the oiher band, Lord Bramwell holds that when a train is not at the platform there Is no obligation on the oorrpany to t»ka charge of luggage exoapt for tho purpose of allowiug the paasenger to got his ticket The oase must have coat a pretty penny, i commencing, aa it did, In the Oonnty Oourt, and rannlns; through to the House of Lords. — "Star."