Randell v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
Randell v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
The petition in substance alleged that while the plaintiff’s wife, Mattie E. Randell, was a passenger in a car of one of defendant’s trains, that the conductor of that train at the city of Topeka in the State of Kansas, wrongfully, wantonly and without any just reason or excuse, and in violation of the rights of his said wife as a passenger, forcibly and violently committed an assault upon her, and with insult and injury and great unnecessary violence expelled her from the train and threw her upon the ground, in consequence of which she suffered bodily injury to her spine and limbs and great physical injury to her nervous system, etc., etc., whereby he was damaged, etc..
The answer was a general denial coupled with a plea of contributory negligence. There was a trial resulting in a judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appealed.
It appears from the evidence that one Rooney was a passenger conductor in defendant’s employ whose run was on that part of the railway between Kansas City and Belleville, Kansas. It further appears that at 11 o’clock on the fifth day of September, 1899, one of d'e
The train was composed of a number of cars in which were riding a large number of passengers of both sexes. In the car in which plaintiff’s wife had been riding were about twenty passengers, mostly women. As soon as the train stopped at Topeka, Rooney left the car and shortly afterwards returned with a negro policeman, of the city in which the station was located, who was about six feet tall and weighed about 250 pounds; and as the two approached the place where the plaintiff’s wife was sitting, Rooney pointed her out to the officer, repeating his former request that she pay him the fare. This, she refused to do, saying, amongst other things, that she had no money with her; and thereupon the negro policeman caught hold of both her arms near her body and with the assistance of the negro train porter, and over her protests, and amidst the harrowing and distressing screams of herself and child — the latter crying out: ‘ ‘ Oh, mama! Turn mama loose! Mama! ’ ’ while young as he was, he resisted with all his power the action of the two negroes — and the cries of the other women and the curses of the male passengers in the car, he ruthlessly and pitilessly dragged her on her back
The law has been held to be that one who persistently refuses to pay fare or produce a ticket can not gain a right to be carried or make his expulsion unlawful by a tender of the fare after the conductor begins to expel him. Elliott on Railroads, sec. 1637, and the numerous authorities there cited in note 4. But it has also been further held that if he has no money, another may pay his fare before he is expelled. And if such other offiers to pay his fare before expulsion, the carrier is bound to transport him. He is then in the same situation as if he had borrowed the money of some one near him and tendered it. The conductor would have the same right to refuse to accept money thus borrowed as to refuse the offer made. There can be no difference in principle. Railroad v. Garrett, 8 Lea (Tenn.) 438; Railroad v. Nix, 68 Ga. 572; Clark v. Railroad, 91 N. C. 506; Hoffbauer v. Railway, 52 Iowa 342; Elliott on Railroads, sec. 1637; 3 Am. and Eng. Ry. Cases, 416. It is thus seen that the allegation of the plaintiff’s petition that his wife was a passenger on the defendant’s train is not without .substantial evidence to support it, and that the rule requiring the allegata and probata to correspond was fairly met. It will not do to say there
But suppose she was an intruder on the defendant’s train and that the conductor was authorized to expel her therefrom, still, in accomplishing such expulsion he was authorized to use only such force as was reasonably necessary, and for all injuries caused by excessive force or violence the defendant was liable. Tanger v. Railroad, 85 Mo. App. 28; Turner v. McCook, 77 Mo. App. l. c. 201; Holt v. Railway, 87 Mo. App. 203, 210; Farber v. Railroad, 139 Mo. 272, 283; Perkins v. Railroad, 55 Mo. 201; Haehl v. Railroad, 119 Mo. 325; Steamboat Co. v. Brockett, 121 U. S. 637; Seymour v. Greenwood, 6 H. & N. 359; Ramsden v. Railroad, 101 Mass. 117; Coleman v. Railroad, 106 Mass. 160; Sanford v. Railroad, 23 N. Y. 343; Rounds v. Railroad, 61 N. Y. l. c. 138; Chic. City Ry. v. Pelletier, 131 Ill. 120. The indubitable inference to be deduced from the physical condition in which plaintiff’s wife was found after the expulsion is that great force and violence was employed in accomplishing it. Such physical condition negatives the testimony of the policeman and conductor that they handled her “nicely” and gently. The negro giant of a policeman with the aid of the negro porter could have picked the plaintiff’s wife up and carried her out of the car with entire ease and without inflicting the injuries they did. The employment of the force and violence they used in expelling her was of such a character as might well excite the commiseration and indignation of the passengers who witnessed it. Such an exhibition of brutal force was .discreditable alike to the city where it happened and to the railway company whose agents instigated it.
When we consider the language of the conductor re
The theory upon which both parties by their instructions requested the submission of the case to the jury was that the plaintiff’s wife was a trespasser. If the defendant used unnecessary and excessive force in effecting the expulsion whereby the injuries complained of were inflicted, it would be unimportant whether she was a passenger or a trespasser. The defendant would have no right to employ excessive force in her expulsion, whether such expulsion was rightful or wrongful. Suppose the petition did allege that she was a passenger, and therefore rightfully- on defendant’s train, and the proof should show that she was not a passenger but an intruder, the defendant would be liable if in effecting the expulsion unnecessary force and violence was used resulting in her injury.- The essence of the complaint was the excessive force and violence used in the expulsion. The variance was wholly immaterial — utile per inutile non vitiatur. But if there was a variance it is not avail
The defendant objected in the court below to testimony relative to certain conversation between' the witness Smith and the conductor which took place after the expulsion, on the ground that it was “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.” No ground of objection was stated. Clark v. Loan Co., 46 Mo. App. 248; Creighton v. Mod. Woodmen, 90 Mo. App. l. c. 386.
The defendant complains that the court refused its instruction submitting its defénse of contributory negligence. If the plaintiff’s wife was unlawfully on defendant’s train, it was her duty, when requested by the conductor, to leave it at the first suitable opportunity that was afforded her, and if she refused to so leave then the conductor was authorized to remove her, using only such force as was necessary for that purpose. Holt v. Railway, 174 Mo. 624. But if she resisted, and it became necessary to use more force than would have been necessary but for such resistance, and if her injuries were received in the struggle while resisting, there would be no liability, unless they were willfully or wantonly inflicted. And while a railway conductor in the exercise of his police powers and disciplinary control over his train may use such force as is necessary to overcome the resistance of a recusant intruder, yet, if he employ such unnecessary force so as to maltreat the resisting intruder in ill temper or hostility, or if the excessive force used by, him is shown to have been wanton or malicious, the railway company is liable. But if the recusant plaintiff’s negligence or wrongful act had a material effect in producing the injury, or substantially contributed towards it, then he is not entitled to recover. This seems to be the result of the authorities. Hutchison on Carriers, sec. 593; 1 Thompson Com. Law Neg., secs. 206, 207,
The plaintiff’s instructions purport to cover the whole case, but omit any reference to the defendant’s defense of contributory negligence. The rule is that an instruction which purports to cover the whole case and which directs a finding must not omit any material defense within the scope of the pleadings and evidence. Clark v. Hammerle, 27 Mo. 55; Fitzgerald v. Hayward, 50 Mo. 516; Griffith v. Conway, 45 Mo. App. 574; Voegeli v. Granite Co., 49 Mo. App. 643; Shewalter v. Railway, 84 Mo. App. l. c. 601. Nor was this omission supplied by any instruction given for defendant.
But my associates are of the opinion that under the facts of the case disclosed by the evidence, the defendant was not entitled to a submission to the jury of the issue of contributory negligence, and that the plaintiff’s said instruction ignoring that defense was proper; and accordingly it results that the judgment must be affirmed.
Separate Opinion.
I am of the opinion that the judgment ought not to be reversed on account of the failure of plaintiff’s first instruction to exclude the question of the injury happening by reason of Mrs. Randell’s contributory negligence, or of her resistance. The plaintiff’s action is based on an unjustifiable assault and bat
2. Neither was it necessary to include the hypothesis of her resistance. While the law 'is that a carrier may expel a passenger who refuses to pay fare, yet, as is abundantly demonstrated by the authorities in plaintiff’s brief, there must be no unnecessary force or means employed. When violent and unnecessary force is used the carrier becomes the wrong-doer and it is not for him when brought to the bar of justice, to say that if the passenger had not resisted my unwarranted and unnecessary force I would not have hurt him as badly as I did. In this case the defendant had honored Mrs. Randell’s ticket from Denver, Colorado, to Belleville, Kansas, a distance of nearly five hundred miles. At the latter place there was a change of conductors, the conductor who figures in this controversy taking charge at eleven o’clock, a. m. Just after leaving Belleville, when he approached Mrs. Randell for the first time, he found that the time limit of her ticket to Kansas City had expired the day before. He took it into his possession and kept it, but refused to accept it and told her she must pay fare. Within a short distance he spoke to her twice more and said she must pay her fare or get off. He then said nothing further to her and carried her, perhaps, a hundred miles further on, when, on arriving at Topeka, not far from her destination, without notifying her of his intention to do so, he procured the service of a negro policeman of extraordinary stature and strength, in uniform armed with a club, and directed him to eject her from the train. A crowd of people had followed the policeman into the car. The negro officer proceeded to eject her by seizing her under the arms or around the
There was not the slightest excuse for calling in the policeman ,• and when called in there was nothing to justify his dragging her backwards out of the car and down the steps, inflicting serious injuries upon her. It was an act of unnecessary violence and an outrage without excuse. In such case the answer of mollitur mcmus imposuit, is no defense. Gregory v. Hill, 8 T. R. 299. If she had been some desperado, armed and defiant there would have been, reason in calling upon armed officers of the law for assistance, but being a mere woman, she could easily have been removed without violence or injury by the conductor himself, at least with the aid of his assistants. His failure to do anything himself or to have his assistants do anything, and his taking her by ten or twelve stations where he might have put her off, leads irresistibly to the conclusion that his desire was to terrorize her as he succeeded in doing. He and the policeman became guilty of an unjustifiable .assault and battery. And though it be conceded that Mrs. Randell’s resistance caused her to be hurt more than she would have been had she remained passive and suffered herself to be led from the train, yet, if a person is unjustifiably assaulted by another and is hurt in consequence of a reasonable resistance to such assault, the fact of such resistance ought not to relieve the wrongdoer. His act is the proximate cause of the injury. If one is set upon by another and struck in the face and in consequence of
The judgment should be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- EUGENE L. RANDELL v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY
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- 2 cases
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