Lewis v. Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway Co.
Lewis v. Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
By original petition filed in the Dis trict Court of Palo Pinto County the appellee sought to restrain appellant J. F. Lewis and his agents from entering its passenger trains for the purpose of soliciting the patronage of its passengers in behalf of appellant’s transfer line at Mineral Wells. The agreed facts upon which the case was submitted to the district judge, and upon which we are asked to revise his judgment in perpetuating the injunction against appellant, are in substance as follows: The plaintiff is a corporation and common carrier, operating a line of railroad between Weatherford and Mineral Weils. Mineral Wells is a town of about 3000 inhabitants, and a place noted as a health resort, to which place a great many persons travel and go to and from during the various seasons of the year. The defendant Lewis resides in Mineral Wells and owns, controls and ■has controlled and operated for more than a year, a number of hacks, carriages, drays and wagons in the conduct of the transfer and livery business, and has been, and is now, engaged in the carrying on of such business. The defendants Thompson and Hester were in his employ soliciting business for him, and were acting under his direction and control.
At the time of the filing of plaintiff’s petition in this case, and for more than a year prior thereto, plaintiff had established rules and regu
Plaintiff at all such times refused to give to said Lewis and his agents or any one of them, any authority or permission to travel upon said trains for such purposes. The defendant Lewis and his employes have at all times insisted that when he or either of them purchased a ticket, that he or any of said employes had the right to travel upon any of the plaintiff’s passenger trains and solicit the patronage of its passengers with reference to the transportation of such passengers or their baggage. The plaintiff has at all times denied this asserted right, and had advised Lewis that it had granted the exclusive privilege of doing this business to the said T. J. Green. Prior to the filing of plaintiff’s complaint the defendants on many occasions had purchased tickets and traveled upon the cars of plaintiff and solicited the patronage of the passengers, the plaintiff at all times endeavoring to prevent the same. Because of these demands and refusals several altercations had arisen between the employes of plaintiff and the employes of said Lewis. The conductor in charge of plaintiff’s train had often forbidden Lewis and his employes to solicit on the passenger train and had threatened and attempted to prohibit them from doing so, in consequence of which civil suits for damages against plaintiff had resulted, which were pending in the District Court of Palo Pinto County at the time of the institution of this proceeding. Both Lewis and Green are engaged in carrying on the transfer business at Mineral Wells, and each has the proper facilities and equipment for the proper and safe conduct of the transfer business.
One of appellant’s assignments of error, though not the first presented in the brief, is that the court erred in perpetuating the .injunction, because the rule or regulation by the appellee, whereby the exclusive privilege of soliciting the patronage of its passengers was given to Green, creátes a monopoly and is violative of the anti-trust law of this State.
Under the only other remaining assignment .of error, the following propositions are asserted: “1. A railroad company has no right to make unreasonable rules controlling the conduct of the passengers on their trains. 2. A railroad company has no right to make a rule or regulation whereby it gives to one individual exclusive rights upon its trains, and excludes others from exercising the same rights, where the business engaged in by the said two parties is one in its very nature involving public interests, and is in the nature of a necessity for the convenience and welfare of the passengers; especially where said two parties are public carriers and equally well fitted for the business in which they are both engaged.” We readily assent to the proposition that a railroad company has no right to make unreasonable rules controlling the conduct of its passengers while on its trains, and we as readily recognize the converse of this to be true, that is, that a railroad company lias the right to make all reasonable rules and regulations concerning the conduct of its passengers. For the present it is sufficient to say, we think the rule or regulation pleaded by appellee, and shown by the agreed facts, is both reasonable and salutary. The question presented by the second proposition seems never to have arisen in this State, but has been much discussed elsewhere.
In an early New York case, Barney v. Oyster Bay and H. Steamboat Co., 67 N. Y., 301, it is said: “The carrier, however, may make reasonable rules and regulations for the conduct of his business, and when
In Kates v. Atlanta Baggage and Cab Co. (Ga.), 34 S. E. Rep., 372, the question came before the Supreme Court of Georgia, where the following language was used: “It is claimed that the grant of the enumerated privileges to the cab company and the refusal of them to petitioner is the exercise of an undue preference on the part of the carrier against the business of petitioner, and that such grant and refusal established a monopoly which is forbidden by law.” After reviewing a number of authorities, among others the case of Fluker v. Railway Co., 81 Ga., 461, 8 S. E. Rep., 529, the court goes on to say: “The case clearly rules the principle that a railroad company has the right to exclude from its premises persons going thereon for the purpose of transacting private business, and a second proposition is equally as clearly stated to be that the privilege of doing so may be granted to one and refused to another, without violating any principle of law which governs the conduct of carriers and regulates their duty to the public. * * * In the very nature of things it would be impossible for a railroad company to permit the agents of all baggage or express companies to enter its trains to solicit the transportation of baggage, and yet, because Of such impossibility, it would hardly be fair to the traveling public to refuse to permit the agent of any to do so.” ' ■
To the like effect is the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Donovan v. Pennsylvania Co., 61 Law. Rep. Ann., 140, where practically all the authorities on the question, pro and con, are cited. We quote from that decision the following: “The asserted right of the hackmen necessarily postulates a correlative duty on the part of the railroad company. The company owes the duty to all persons, without discrimination, to carry them on equal terms of service and compensation. As a common carrier of passengers, the company must provide facilities for the reception, carriage and discharge of its passengers, and must establish rights which are available equally to all who desire to become passengers. But the company does not owe to its passengers the duty to provide on its trains the opportunities for them to purchase newspapers, books, fruit and the like, or to employ the service of a stenographer, or of a barber, or to buy cab or express tickets. Much less does it owe the duty to anyone to permit him to pursue his vocation on the trains.”
The rule announced in these cases commends itself to our consideration. There is not wanting authority, however, for a' different holding. There are many cases which deny the right of a railroad company to enter into an arrangement whereby the right of its passengers to choose their own transfer agents after leaving the railway company’s premises is controlled, But this may be, and is, we think, a different question from the one presented in this case, and the authorities referred to need not be discussed. Ordinarily, all hackmen alike have the common right of soliciting the patronage of railroad passengers, but this common right may be defeated by the railroad company by the establishment of a reasonable rule or regulation with respect to its passengers while they are in such company’s charge. At the point where the railroad com-
The judgment of the District Court perpetuating the injunction against appellant and his agents is therefore in all things affirmed.
Affirmed.
Writ of error refused.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J. F. Lewis v. Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Syllabus
- 1. —Carriers of Passengers—Privilege of Train to Transfer Man—Anti-Trust Law. The action oí a railway company in permitting the agents of only one transfer and hack company to solicit business on its trains is not violative of the anti-trust statute as being an unauthorized restriction in the free pursuit of any business. 2. —Same—Right to Grant Exclusive Privilege on Trains. A railway company has the right to exclude from its premises and cars persons going thereon for the purpose of transacting private business, and the privilege of so doing may be granted to one and refused to another without violating any principle of law which governs the conduct of carriers and regulates their duty to the public. 3. —Same—Injunction by Carrier. An injunction will lie to restrain the agents of a transfer company from soliciting business on the trains of a railway company where the latter has granted to another transfer company the exclusive privilege to solicit business on its trains.