Carmack amendment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 226 U.S. 491 - Adams Express Co. v. Croninger · 1913Most cited · 1,837 citing opinions
That any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company receiving property for transportation from a point in one state to a point in another state shall issue a receipt or bill of lading therefor, and shall be liable to the lawful holder thereof for any loss, damage, or injury to such property caused by it or by any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company to which such property may be delivered, or over whose line or lines such property may pass; and no contract, receipt, rule, or regulation shall exempt such common carrier, railroad, or transportation company from the liability hereby imposed.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Carmack amendment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Carmack amendment,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Carmack amendment”
Court decisions citing the 6 opinions that defined “Carmack amendment” — 3,254 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 6 definitions, chronological · 1913–1947
- 1913·227 U.S. 218 - St Louis Southwestern Railway Company of Texas v. Robert Alexander[p15]· cited 586×
The object of the statute was to require the initial carrier receiving freight for transportation in interstate commerce to obligate itself to carry to the point of destination, using the lines of connecting carriers as its agencies, thus securing for the benefit of the shipper unity of transportation and responsibility.
purpose
The words 'any loss, damage, or injury to such property,' caused by the initial carrier or by any connecting carrier, are comprehensive enough to embrace all damages resulting from any failure to discharge a carrier's duty with respect to any part of the transportation to the agreed destination. The duty to transport with reasonable despatch is none the less an integral part of the normal undertaking of the carrier.
- 1917·243 U.S. 592 - St Louis Iron Mountain Southern Railway Company v. C a Starbird[p15]· cited 330×
The Carmack Amendment is a Federal statute regulating interstate commerce. It was passed under the power conferred by the Constitution upon Congress to regulate such commerce, and is applicable throughout the United States, and at once became the rule of law governing such shipments in all the courts of the country.
The purpose of the Carmack Amendment... was to create in the initial carrier unity of responsibility for the transportation to destination... And provisions in the bill of lading inconsistent with that liability are void. While the receiving carrier is thus responsible for the whole carriage, each connecting road may still be sued for damages occurring on its line; and the liability of such participating carrier is fixed by the applicable valid terms of the original bill of lading.
unity of responsibility
the Carmack Amendment makes such second bill of lading void. It can neither enlarge the liability of the connecting carrier nor contract that of the initiating carrier. That is what was meant when the Ward case said that the purpose of the Carmack Amendment was 'to create in the initial carrier unity of responsibility for the transportation to destination.