§ 62-200. Duty to transport household goods within a reasonable time. - North Carolina Statutes

Article 10.

Transportation in General.

§ 62‑200.  Duty to transport household goodswithin a reasonable time.

(a)        It shall be unlawful for any common carrier of householdgoods doing business in this State to omit or neglect to transport within areasonable time any goods, merchandise or other articles of value received byit for shipment and billed to or from any place in this State, unless otherwiseagreed upon between the carrier and the shipper, or unless the same be burned,stolen or otherwise destroyed, or unless otherwise provided by the Commission.

(b)        Any common carrier violating any of the provisions of thissection shall forfeit to the party aggrieved the sum of ten dollars ($10.00)for the first day and one dollar ($1.00) for each succeeding day of suchunlawful detention or neglect, but the forfeiture shall not be collected for aperiod exceeding 30 days.

(c)        In reckoning what is a reasonable time for suchtransportation, it shall be considered that such common carrier has transportedhousehold goods within a reasonable time if it has done so in the ordinary timerequired for transporting such articles by similar carriers between thereceiving and shipping stations. The Commission is authorized to establishreasonable times for transportation by the various modes of carriage whichshall be held to be prima facie reasonable, and a failure to transport withinsuch times shall be held prima facie unreasonable. This section shall beconstrued to refer not only to delay in starting the household goods from thestation where they are received, but to require the delivery at theirdestination within the time specified: Provided, that if such delay shall bedue to causes which could not in the exercise of ordinary care have beenforeseen or which were unavoidable, then upon the establishment of these factsto the satisfaction of the court trying the cause, the defendant common carriershall be relieved from any penalty for delay in the transportation of householdgoods, but it shall not be relieved from the costs of such action. In allactions to recover penalties against a common carrier under this section, theburden of proof shall be upon such carrier to show where the delay, if any,occurred. The penalties provided in this section shall be in addition to thedamages recoverable for failure to transport within a reasonable time.

(d)        This section shall not apply to motor carriers ofpassengers. (Code, s. 1964;1899, c. 164, s. 2, subsecs. 2, 7; 1903, c. 444; c. 590, s. 3; c. 693; 1905, c.545; Rev., ss. 1094, 2631, 2632; 1907, cc. 217, 461; C.S., ss. 1053, 3515,3516; 1933, c. 134, s. 8; 1941, c. 97; 1963, c. 1165, s. 1; 1995, c. 523, s.11; 1995 (Reg. Sess., 1996), c. 742, s. 33; 1998‑128, s. 9.)