Tarrant v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad
Tarrant v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad
Opinion of the Court
This action was brought by plaintiff in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis to recover damages for his ejection from one of the trains of defendant, on the 30th of September, 1907, at McAlmont, a station a few miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas. Plaintiff alleged in his petition that he had purchased a ticket from the Kansas City Southern Railroad from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to St.. Louis, Missouri, for which he paid $23, and which entitled him to passage over that road to Texarkana, Arkansas, and thence over defendant’s road to. St. Louis, Missouri, which ticket he delivered to the person collecting fares for defendant on said train shortly after taking passage on defendant’s railroad; that when in the course of transit he had arrived a few miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, the train auditor of defendant again demanded plaintiff’s fare; that the plaintiff explained that the fare had been paid, whereupon defendant’s agent, known as the conductor of said train, refused' to carry plaintiff unless he again paid fare, and put him off at the station above mentioned in a rude and wanton and malicious manner, and without just cause, and subjected him to humiliation. For all of which plaintiff asked judgment in the sum of five thousand dollars actual damages and five thousand dollars punitive damages. To this petition defendant’s answer comprised a general denial and a further defense, that whatever injury to his feelings or expense were suffered by plaintiff on the occasion mentioned “were the direct result of his own misconduct and wrongdoing in failing and refusing to produce and present to defendant’s employees in charge of the train on which he was riding á ticket authorizing him to ride beyond Benton, Arkansas, and in-failing to pay or tender to said agents or employees of defendant his fare from Benton, Arkansas, to St. Louis,” and in re-entering
For the defense there was evidence tending to show that the plaintiff embarked .on its train at Texarkana on the date above stated, and soon thereafter the train auditor went through the train for the purpose of taking up the tickets of the passengers; that when he came to the plaintiff he received from him a ticket reading to Benton, Arkansas, a station some twenty-five miles south, of Little Rock; that in return for the ticket, the auditor gave the plaintiff a check, “cheeked his hat to Benton, Arkansas;” that before the train arrived at Benton the auditor went around0 and took up the hat check he had given plaintiff, who got up and came out and went down the steps and got on the platform; that the auditor holloed “all aboard;” that when he got back in the train he discovered that plaintiff had gotten back on the train, whereupon he asked him for a ticket; that plaintiff replied, “I have no ticket,” and searched his pockets, and said, “I can’t find my ticket.” The auditor said, “Go ahead and
There was other testimony in the record not material to the point presented by this appeal.
The case was submitted to a jury, who returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. Plaintiff filed a, motion for a new trial which was subsequently sustained by the court for the assumed error in one of the instructions given by it at defendant’s request.- The instruction in question is, to-wit:
“The court instructs the jury that, if you believe from the evidence that defendant’s train auditor gave plaintiff a check to indicate 'the destination of his*660 ticket, when he took it up, and thereafter demanded said check of plaintiff and plaintiff failed or refused to exhibit or surrender said check to him, then defendant’s train auditor had the right to eject plaintiff from the train at the time and place he did eject him, if he refused to pay his fare beyond Little Rock, and you will find your verdict for the defendant.”
Prom the order granting a new trial, defendant perfected an appeal to this court.
OPINION.
I. The only question presented by this appeal is as to the propriety of the instruction given by the court on behalf of defendant, for the giving of which a new trial was granted.
Counsel for defendant insisted, and cites authority to that effect (2 Hutchinson on Carriers [3 Ed.], sec. 1037), that a carrier’s rule requiring its passengers to show their tickets to conductors when called upon so to do and making it the duty of the conductor to remove from the train any person who refuses to do so, or to pay proper fare, is a reasonable and just measure of protection against the use of one ticket as a passport for more than one person, and that this principle applies equally to the right to call for a substitute for an original ticket in the form of a rebate or train check or other slip given to the passenger when his ticket is taken up. However, in this State it has been distinctly held that a passenger who fails to purchase a ticket and who does not tender a proper fare upon request of the conductor, may be lawfully ejected from the train under the safeguards provided by statute. [Holt v. Railroad, 174 Mo. 524, adopting opinion of Court of Appeals in the same case, 87 Mo. App. 203.]
The defect in instruction numbered 6 is not that it embodies an incorrect statement of the law in the abstract, but that it submitted to the jury a hypothesis
If the instruction under review had submitted the issue of the refusal of the plaintiff to tender a ticket showing a destination north of Benton, Arkansas, or to pay a proper fare thenceforward, it would have presented a defense amply supported by the testimony adduced by defendant, and which the defendant was clearly entitled to have submitted to the jury. According to the tenor of the proof on behalf of defendant, plaintiff’s ride was ended when he reached Benton, Arkansas. Hence, it is clear, if plaintiff insisted on being transported beyond that point, he should have
According to the record, new trial was granted in this case solely because of the inaccuracy of the instructiton as applied to the conceded evidence. That will doubtless be corrected on a new trial.
- The order of the circuit judge granting a new trial herein is affirmed,,-and the cause remanded.
The foregoing opinion by Bond, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- W. P. TARRANT v. ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN & SOUTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY
- Status
- Published