value applies. In no other way can it protect itself in its right to be compensated in proportion to its insurance risk. But when a shipper delivers a package for shipment and declares a value, either upon request or voluntarily, and the carrier makes a rate accordingly, the shipper is estopped upon plain principles of justice from recovering, in case of loss or damage, any greater amount. The same principle applies if the value be declared in the form of a contract. If such a valuation be made in good faith for the purpose of obtaining the lower rate applicable to a shipment of the declared value, there is no exemption from carrier liability due to negligence forbidden by the statute when the shipper is limited to a recovery of the value so declared. The ground upon which such a declared or agreed value is upheld is that of estoppel. Thus in Hart v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 112 U. S. 331, 340, 341, it is stated:

"As a general rule, and in the absence of fraud or imposition, a common carrier is answerable for the loss of a package of goods though he is ignorant of its contents, and though its contents are ever so valuable, if he does not make a special acceptance. This is reasonable, because he can always guard himself by a special acceptance, or by insisting on being informed of the nature and value of the articles before receiving them. If the shipper is guilty of fraud or imposition, by misrepresenting the nature or value of the articles, he destroys his claim to idemnity, because he has attempted to deprive the carrier of the right to be compensated in proportion to the value of the articles and the consequent risk assumed, and what he has done has tended to lessen the vigilance the carrier would otherwise have bestowed."

In summing up the view of the court in the same case it was said (p. 343):

"The distinct ground of our decision in the case at bar is, that where a contract of the kind, signed by the shipper, is fairly made, agreeing on the valuation of the property carried, with the rate of freight based on the condition that the carrier assumes liability only to the extent of the agreed valuation, even in case of loss or damage by the negligence of the carrier, the contract will be upheld as a proper and lawful mode of securing a due proportion between the amount for which the carrier may be responsible and the freight he receives, and of protecting himself against extravagant and fanciful valuations."

The valuation declared or agreed upon as evidenced by the contract of shipment upon which the published tariff rate is applied, must be conclusive in an action to recover for loss or damage a greater sum. In saying this we lay on one side, as not here in

volved, every question which might arise when it is shown that the carrier intentionally connived with the shipper to give him an illegal rate, thereby causing a discrimination or preference forbidden by the positive terms of the act of Congress and made punishable as a crime. To permit such a declared valuation to be overthrown by evidence aliunde the contract, for the purpose of enabling the shipper to obtain a recovery in a suit for loss or damage in excess of the maximum valuation thus fixed, would both encourage and reward undervaluations and bring about preferences and discriminations forbidden by the law. Such a result would neither be just nor conducive to sound morals or wise policies. The valuation the shipper declares determines the legal rates where there are two rates based upon valuation. He must take notice of the rate applicable, and actual want of knowledge is no excuse. The rate, when made out and filed, is notice, and its effect is not lost, although it is not actually posted in the station: Texas & Pacific Railway v. Mugg, 202 U. S. 242; Chicago & A. Railway v. Kirby, 225 U. S. 155.

It would open a wide door to fraud and destroy the uniform operation of the published tariff rate sheets. When there are two published rates, based upon difference in value, the legal rate automatically attaches itself to the declared or agreed value. . . .

That the valuation and the rate are dependent each upon the other is an administrative rule applied in reparation proceedings by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Southern Oil Company v. Southern Railway Co., 19 I. C. C. Rep. 79; Miller & Lux v. Southern Pacific Company, 20 I. C. C. Rep. 129.

In Hart v. Penn. R. R. Co., 112 U. S. 331, parole evidence that the horses shipped were of a far greater value than the valuation agreed upon was rejected as incompetent. "The presumption is conclusive," said the court, "that if the liability had been assumed on a valuation as great as that now alleged, a higher rate of freight would have been charged. The rate of freight is indissolubly bound up with the valuation."

The difference between two rates upon the same commodity based upon valuation is presumably no more than sufficient to protect the carrier against the greater amount of risk he assumes by reason of the difference in value. When the higher rate is no more than to reasonably insure the carrier against the larger responsibility a real choice of rate is offered and the shipper has no reasonable excuse for undervaluation. If the margin between the rates is unreasonably beyond protection against the larger risk the shipper may be induced to misrepresent the value to escape the unreasonably high rate upon the real value. This would result in

permitting the shipper to obtain a rate to which he is not entitled, and in the carrier escaping from a portion of its statutory liability. Both the adjustment of rates upon the class of articles based upon difference in valuation, as well as the acceptance of stipulations in the carrier's bill of lading which affect the liability declared by the Carmack Amendment, are administrative duties of the Commission. To the extent that such limitations of liability are not forbidden by law, they become, when filed, a part of the rate.

In the instant case, we must assume that the difference between the rates upon household goods of less value than five dollars per hundredweight and the rate upon the same class of goods of a higher value has been fixed upon this principle. We must for the purpose of this case accept the high and low rate as reasonable. If the present rates upon such goods, as shown in the tariffs filed, are inadequate to protect the shipper, a remedy can be had by an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission readjusting the rates to meet the requirements of justice, alike to shipper and carrier. Coming now to the application of the principles we have indicated, we are at once confronted with the suggestion that the contract in this case is not one of valuation. Upon the side of the shipper the pregnant words are that he thereby "releases the said company from all liability for any loss or damage said property may sustain in excess of $5 per 100 lbs." At the foot and below the signature of the consignor is a notation addressed to the company's agent, stating in substance, that when household goods are shipped at the rate based on a valuation of $5 per 100 lbs. the agent will require the owner or consignor to "sign this agreement," and then note on the bill of lading,-"Released to valuation of $5 per hundred." This was done, showing that the agent understood that the household goods were shipped upon a valuation of five dollars per hundred pounds. The tariff sheets filed with the Commission showed two rates on household goods, one "when released to five dollars per hundred and a higher rate when not so released." The rate endorsed on the bill of lading and paid by the shipper was the lower rate so prescribed by the rate sheets. The lawful rate when valued at more than five dollars per hundred was twenty per cent. higher than the rate under which the consignor's household goods were shipped. In the light of the published tariffs and of the rate applied to this shipment, the two papers, read together, plainly mean that the household goods included in the two boxes and one barrel were valued for the purpose of coming under the lower rate at five dollars per hundred. The phrase "hereby releases," &c., is said to indicate not a

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valuation but a release from liability for a part of the value. The words are somewhat misleading. Yet contracts for the limitation of loss to an agreed valuation are largely in this form. The Commission, which has the rate sheets of hundreds of railroads including stipulations as to value, treats the topic under the title Released Rates." 13 I. C. C. Rep. 550. The phrase has, we may take notice, come to be a term applied to contracts of shipment containing in one form or another an agreement to adjust a loss or damage upon the basis of an agreed or declared value. It is difficult not to see, when we read the bill of lading and the release, with its note, in the light of the filed rate sheets and the rate paid upon this shipment corresponding to the lower of two rates upon household goods, that the consignor and the carrier mutually understood that these boxes and this barrel contained household goods of the average value per hundredweight of five dollars. The defendant in error must be presumed to have known that he was obtaining a rate based upon a valuation of five dollars per hundredweight, as provided by the published tariff. This valuation was conclusive, and no evidence tending to show an undervaluation was admissible.

It has been suggested that a rate of five dollars per hundred pounds upon household goods indiscriminately is arbitrary, and has no reasonable relation to the actual value. This objection goes to the classification made in the filed tariff sheets. They place two rates upon household goods valued over and under five dollars per hundred pounds. This basis has not been regarded by the Commission as either arbitrary or unreasonable. In the opinion styled "In the matter of Released Rates," cited above, the Commission, among other things, said (p. 564):

"The practice of basing rates upon the condition that the carrier shall not be responsible for losses due to causes beyond its control has received legal sanction. Similarly we find no impropriety in a graduation of rates in accordance with the actual values of specific commodities. Household goods, for example, differ widely in value, and it is fair to all that the man who ships goods of low value should receive the benefit of a lower rate than the man who ships more expensive goods. Rate-making upon this principle is in every respect legitimate."

Our conclusion is that the shipping contract does not upon its face offend against the statute, and the judgment must, for the errors indicated, be reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.*

MR. JUSTICE HUGHES and MR. JUSTICE PITNEY dissent.

4 See prevailing and dissenting opinions in Boston & M. R. R. v. Hooker

GOOCH v. OREGON SHORT LINE RAILROAD COMPANY.

258 U. S. 22. 1922.1

MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the court. This is an action for personal injuries caused by a collision on the defendant's road. The plaintiff, the petitioner, shipped some cattle from Bancroft in Idaho to Omaha in Nebraska and got a drover's pass to go with them as caretaker, free from charge other than that made for carrying the cattle. In consideration of the pass the plaintiff agreed that the carrier should not be liable for any injury to him upon the trip unless he or his personal representative should within thirty days after the injury give notice in writing of his claim to the general manager of the carrier on which line the accident occurred. This agreement was required in pursuance of a regulation that was part of the defendant's tariff duly filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission. The collision happened on November 24, 1917, and the plaintiff was in a hospital for about thirty days under the care of a doctor employed by the defendant, but was not disabled from giving the notice. He failed to give it, however. The District Court directed a non-suit. and its judgment was affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. 264 Fed. 664. A writ of certiorari was granted by this Court. 254 U. S. 623.

The only question is whether the requirement of notice in writing was valid. The railroad company does not contend that it could have exonerated itself altogether from liability for negligence, Norfolk Southern R. R. Co. v. Chatman, 244 U. S. 276, but argues that a stipulation for written notice within a reasonable time stands on a different footing, and of this there is no doubt. Southern Pacific Co. v. Stewart, 248 U. S. 446, 449, 450. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. Co. v. Starbird, 243 U. S. 592, 602, et seq. We perceive nothing in the form of the notice

(1914), 233 U. S. 97: H. W. Biklé, "Agreed Valuation as Affecting the Liability of Common Carriers for Negligence," 21 Harvard L. Rev. 32.

For the effect of the First and Second Cummins Amendments to section 20 of the Interstate Commerce Acts (act of March 4, 1915, 39 Stat. 1197, and act of Aug. 9, 1916, 39 Stat. 441) see Note, 66 Pennsylvania L. Rev. 166. by Professor Biklé, and Note, 20 Michigan L. Rev. 765, by Professor Goddard. See also Note, 20 Michigan L. Rev. 348.

As to the binding effect of terms in bills of lading and express receipts, compare St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. Ladd (1912), 33 Okl. 160, and Wichern v. United States Exn. Co. (1912), 83 N. J. L. 241. See Notes, 34 Harvard L. Rev. 84: 11 Michigan L. Rev. 58.

1 Part of JUSTICE CLARKE'S dissenting opinion is omitted.— ED.