Every railroad corporation doing business in this state shall be a common carrier. Any one of two or more corporations owning or operating connecting roads, within this state, or partly within and partly without the state, shall be liable as a common carrier, for the transportation of passengers or delivery of freight received by it to be transported by it to any place on the line of a connecting road; and if it shall become liable to pay any sum by reason of neglect or misconduct of any other corporation it may collect the same of the corporation by reason of whose neglect or misconduct it became liable.
New York Legal Code