Joseph Travers & Sons Ltd v Cooper [1915] 1 KB 73, Court of Appeal
Citation:Joseph Travers & Sons Ltd v Cooper [1915] 1 KB 73, Court of Appeal
Rule of thumb:Where goods purchased by a person are damaged, can it be presumed that the carrier must have damaged them rather than the seller? No, if the carrier can show that they took reasonable measures to protect the goods is then the presumption is that they did not damage them. Sellers generally should have evidence of the state of the goods before they gave them to the carrier.
Judgment:
Where there is an independent cause of the loss or damage, and the carrier can show that this caused the loss or damage, then the carrier is not liable for this, “I cannot think it is good law that in such circumstances he should be permitted to saddle upon the parties who have not broken their contract the duty of explaining how things went wrong. It is for him to explain the loss himself, and if he cannot satisfy the court that it occurred from some cause independent of his own wrong-doing he must make that loss good’, Lord Loreburn, “It appears to me that here there was a bailment made to a particular person, a bailment for hire and reward, and the bailee was bound to shew that he took reasonable and proper care for the due security and proper delivery of that bailment; the proof of that rested upon him’, Lord Halsbury at 88
Ratio-decidendi:
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