Montana Code Annotated 2017

TITLE 69. PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS

CHAPTER 11. REGULATION OF CARRIERS

Part 4. Carriers of Property

Permissible Limitations On Liability

69-11-422. Permissible limitations on liability. (1) The provisions of 69-11-421 respecting liability for full actual loss, damage, or injury, notwithstanding any limitation of liability or recovery or representation or agreement or release as to value, and declaring any such limitation to be unlawful and void shall not apply to:

(a) baggage carried on passenger trains or buses;

(b) property, except ordinary livestock, received for transportation, concerning which the carrier shall have been or shall hereafter be expressly authorized or required by order of the public service commission to establish and maintain rates dependent upon the value declared in writing by the shipper or agreed upon in writing as the released value of the property.

(2) (a) In the case listed in subsection (1)(b), such declaration or agreement shall have no other effect than to limit liability and recovery to an amount not exceeding the value so declared or released and shall not, so far as related to values, be held to be a violation of 69-11-421 through 69-11-427. Any tariff schedule which may be filed with the commission pursuant to the order referred to in subsection (1)(b) shall contain specific reference thereto and may establish rates varying with the value so declared and agreed upon. The commission is hereby empowered to make such order in cases where rates dependent upon and varying with declared or agreed values would, in its opinion, be just and reasonable under the circumstances and conditions surrounding the transportation.

(b) The term "ordinary livestock" shall include all cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses, and mules, except such as are chiefly valuable for breeding, racing, show purposes, or other special uses.

History: En. 8-812.1 by Sec. 1, Ch. 168, L. 1975; R.C.M. 1947, 8-812.1(part).