Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Hurley

• Decision Date: 22 October 1889
• Citation: 12 S.W. 226
• Parties: GULF, C. & S. F. R. CO. <I>v.</I> HURLEY.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

12 S.W. 226

GULF, C. & S. F. R. CO.v.

HURLEY.

Supreme Court of Texas.

October 22, 1889.

Appeal from district court, Tarrant county; R. E. BECKHAM, Judge.

Action by W. B. Hurley against the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Company for damages. Judgment for plaintiff and defendant appeals.

Leake, Shepard & Miller, for appellant.

HENRY, J.

Appellee, who was plaintiff in the court below, alleged that he purchased from the local agent of defendant at Fort Worth, Tex., a ticket over its railroad from Fort Worth to Morgan, and was by such agent directed to board one of the defendant's freight trains, and was assured by him that passengers were carried on such train, and that in pursuance of these instructions plaintiff, at defendant's regular depot, boarded said train as a passenger to said town of Morgan. He charges that at a point one and a half miles from Fort Worth, and before reaching Morgan, the servants of defendant in charge of said train unlawfully and forcibly expelled him from the train, at a place not a station, and in the night-time, and left him to find his way back to Fort Worth as best he could, and that he, being a stranger, experienced great fatigue and distress in finding his way back, and by reason thereof and the ejection from the train he suffered great pain of mind and body, to his damage $2,000. That he lost the money paid for the ticket, and was compelled to lie over at Fort Worth, and was hindered from attending to his regular business, to his further damage $100. The defendant, by his own testimony, proved that he was at Fort Worth, and his family was at Stephensville, to which place he was on his way pursuant to a call from his wife, informing him that his baby was dangerously sick. He testified that, finding that the delay in waiting for a passenger train would cause him to miss connections, he applied to the ticket agent at the Union depot at Fort Worth, and explained to him his anxiety to speedily get home, and the cause of it, whereupon the ticket agent assured him he could take passage on a freight train that would arrive at a certain hour, and that was expected to make the desired connections, and with that view sold him a ticket; that he accordingly, by direction of the agent selling the ticket, took passage on one of defendant's freight trains, from which he was shortly afterwards expelled in the manner charged in his petition, by the servants of defendant, for the reason that the train that he was aboard did not carry passengers. He charges that he informed the agents of de...