The Furs That Arrived as Nineteen Old Magazines
A Seattle shipper's $1,920 box of furs was rifled in transit and stuffed with back issues of Everybody's — and the state supreme court says the fine print on the freight receipt is all he gets.
Olympia, Wash., April 19. — The state supreme court has decided that $19 in cash and 19 old copies of Everybody's Magazine are all that Maurice Windmiller can recover from the Northern Pacific for $1,920 worth of furs shipped by him to New York and stolen en route. The furs were part of a $3,000 shipment from Seattle. Windmiller objected to paying the $30 full liability freight first demanded, and finally agreed to pay $5.05 freight and release the shipment to a value of $1 per pound. When the freight reached the destination, it was discovered the box had been broken open, furs taken out and replaced with the copies of the magazine. The court holds that the shipper, having deliberately signed the release, can recover only at the rate of $1 a pound for the goods stolen.
“It was discovered the box had been broken open, furs taken out and replaced with the copies of the magazine.”
Anyone who has clicked 'I agree' on a shipping waiver or a delivery insurance upsell is arguing with the same clause that beat Maurice Windmiller in 1909. The railroad's liability cap turned a $1,920 loss into nineteen dollars and a stack of somebody's discarded magazines — plus a reminder that the theft was never solved, only priced.
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