Putnam v. Broadway
Putnam v. Broadway
Opinion of the Court
The questions presented upon this appeal are founded upon exceptions to the refusal to non, suit the plaintiff at the. close of the trial.
If the evidence, upon any view that can be taken of it, entitled the plaintiff to a verdict, the judgment must be affirmed. The case was submitted to the jury with great fairness, and with accurate instructions as to the law, if there was, in truth, any evidence of any neglect of duty, or want of care on the part of the servants and agents of the defendant, to which the injury to, and death of, the plaintiff’s intestate could legally be attributed.
The cases bearing upon the liability of railway companies, and other carriers of human beings as passengers for hire, for. any defect in their roadways, carriages, and other vehicles for transportation, any neglect or want of care by themselves, their agents or servants, in the performance of the service. undertaken, and for injuries caused by, or resulting directly from, the acts of the carrier or his servants, either to the passenger . or third person, may be laid out of view, except as they serve to indicate the stringency and extent of the liability imposed by law upon carriers, and the extreme care and diligence required of them, in all that concerns their own acts, and the agencies and means employed by them.
But a railroad company has the power of refusing to receive as a passenger, orto expel, any one who is drunk, disorderly, or riotous, or who so demeans himself as to endanger the safety, or interfere with the reasonable comfort and convenience of the other passengers, and may exert all necessary power and means to eject from the cars any one so imperiling the safety of, or annoying, others ; and this police power the conductor, or other servant of the company in charge of the car or train, is bound to exercise, with all the means he can command, whenever occasion requires. If this duty is neglected without good cause, and a passenger receives injury which might have been reasonably anticipated, or naturally expected from one who is improperly received, or permitted to continue as a passenger, the carrier is responsible (Pittsburgh, F. W. & C. R. Co. v. Hinds,
In the case first cited a passenger was seriously injured by a large body of drunken and riotous persons, who came upon the train in defiance of the conductor in charge, and the court held that upon the evidence in that case, the only question which should have been submitted to the jury, was whether the conductor did all he could to quell the riot, and eject the rioters, and that if he did not the company were liable. The judge at nisi prius having submitted other questions, 'to wit: whether the conductor allowed improper persons on the. train, and whether he allowed more persons on the train than was proper, a verdict for the plaintiff was set aside, and a venire de novo ordered. In the other case, the action was for an injury received by the plaintiff, a passenger on the defendant’s steamboat, from the falling and consequent discharge of a loaded musket, by one of a great numbér of riotous and drunken soldiers engaged in an affray, and occupying a part of the boat assigned to passengers, the plaintiff, being suffered to enter the boat and pass to this part of it without any warning from the officers of the boat, or others, of the presence of these soldiers, and the defendants making no effort to preserve the peace, or remove the offenders. Upon conflicting evidence the jury found for the plaintiff. Judge Shipmaw, in his charge to the jury, instructed them that “the defendants were bound to exercise the utmost vigilance in maintaining order, and guarding the passengers against violence from whatever source arising, which might reasonably be anticipated, or naturally be expected to occur in view of all the circumstances, and the number and character of the persons on board.”
This, as a rule of duty and liability, is in strict analogy to, and consistent with, the rules by which the liability of common carriers of persons- for hire is
It is rather the degree of intoxication and its effect upon the individual, and the fact that by reason of the intoxicatibn he is dangerous or annoying to the other passengers, that gives the right and imposes the duty of expulsion.
While Foster remained on the platform of the car, neither interfering with nor noticing the other passengers, there was nothing to indicate to the conductor that his presence was offensive to the passengers, or that there was danger of harm to any one from him.
There was, during that time, no occasion, and would have been no propriety in causing his removal from the car. He did, however, thereafter make himself peculiarly obnoxious to the other passengers, and, by his conduct and demeanor, grossly insult and annoy them, and gave occasion for the exercise of the power of removal, had the conductor seen fit or been called upon to exercise it; and had he continued his annoying practices, the conductor would have been faithless to Ms duty had he suffered him to remain on the car.
After Foster came into the car and insulted and intimidated the females under the protection of the deceased, the latter appealed to the conductor not to exclude Foster from the car, but to make him be quiet,
There was no evidence tending to show that the conductor was in fault for not removing the person of Foster from the oar. He exerted his police powers by causing him to desist from Ms offensive acts and approaches towards the’females, and supposed he had done all that was necessary to preserve the peace and keep good order upon the car, and to secure the other passengers against further annoyance, as well as all that the deceased asked him to do. If the peace could be preserved, and the quietness and comfort of the passengers could be secured, as he supposed he had done, without the expulsion of the offender, the conductor could
There is no evidence that he had knowledge of what transpired within the car, and after Foster’s return to the platform, there was nothing, so far as appears, to excite alarm, or create apprehension of danger or disturbance or annoyance of' any kind.
There was an entire absence of evidence of any connection or complicity of the driver with Foster, or that the driver was responsible for the possession by the latter of the iron instrument with which the blows were inflicted that caused the death of Putnam. There was no proof from whence or of whom Foster obtained it, and none to show that the driver either acquiesced or assented to the taking of it by Foster, or that he knew that Foster, had it. There was no evidence of negligence or omission of duty, or want of proper care and vigilance on the part of the servants and agents of the company in preserving order and keeping the peace on the cars, and protecting the passengers, to be submitted to the jury, most certainly none connected with the attack upon and death of the intestate, or to which it can be legally or logically traced.
If there was anything in the condition,, conduct, appearance or manner of Foster, from which the jury could reasonably infer that there was reason to expect or anticipate an attack upon the deceased or any other passenger, either while upon the car or in the act of leaving,. the facts authorizing such inference should have been proved, and knowledge of them brought home to the conductor.
The injury to, and death of Mr. Putnam was immediately and directly caused by the murderous attack of Foster, and the carriage of the murderer by the defendant had no connection with and did not cause the act or directly contribute to it.
It is said in McGrew v. Stone, 53 Penn. St., 436, that the general rule is, that a man is answerable for the consequences of a fault which are natural and probable ; but if this fault happen to concur with something extraordinary and not likely to be foreseen, he will not be answerable.
Ch. J. Bovill, in Sharp v. Powell, L. R., 7 C. P.
In Scott v. Shepherd, 2 W. Bl., 892; Guille v. Swan, 19 Johns., 381, and Vandenburgh y. Truax, 4 Den., 464, the injuries were held to be the natural and direct result of the conduct of the party charged, although he did not intend the particular injury which followed. There was no evidence to carry the case to the jury, and the motion for a nonsuit should have been granted.
All the judges concurred.
Judgment accordingly.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.