Ammons v. Southern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 12 December 1905
• Citation: 52 S.E. 731,140 N.C. 196
• Parties: AMMONS v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

52 S.E. 731

140 N.C. 196

AMMONS v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

December 12, 1905

Appeal from Superior Court, Swain County; Ferguson, Judge.

Action by W. R. Ammons against the Southern Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

To entitle a passenger to exemplary damages for his wrongful expulsion from a train, such expulsion must be attended by rudeness, insult, or aggravating circumstances calculated to humiliate the passenger, and an award of such damages is unwarranted, where the passenger is merely told by the conductor that he must get off unless he pays the fare demanded, and on the passenger's refusal stops the train about a quarter of a mile from a station, and the passenger alights without anything further being said.

Where a passenger is wrongfully ejected from a train, his demand may be considered as one in tort, and he may recover as actual or compensatory damages, a fair and just compensation for the wrong, including his actual loss in time or money, and the physical inconvenience or mental suffering or humiliation endured, and which occurs as a reasonable and probable result of the wrong, and he is not limited in his recovery to mere pecuniary loss.

Moore & Rollins, W. B. Rodman, and A. B. Andrews, Jr., for appellant.

F. C Fisher and A. J. Franklin, for appellee.

BROWN J.

This case was before the court at the last term and the facts are fully stated. 138 N.C. 555, 51 S.E. 127. The case comes back upon one exception only by the defendant to the refusal of the judge to give the following instruction: "That in no aspect of the case can the plaintiff recover punitive damages." The court erred in refusing the instruction. Damages are classified generally as "compensatory" and "punitive." The latter are termed also vindictive or exemplary damages. Compensatory damages are defined by Joyce and other text-writers as "those by which the actual loss sustained is measured and the injured party recompensed therefor." Joyce on Damages, § 26. Punitive damages are independent of the injury inflicted or the legal wrong committed, and are allowed in excess of simple compensation upon a theory of punishing the wrongdoer for the wrong inflicted, with the view to prevent similar wrongs in future. Where a trespass is committed deliberately in violation of plaintiff's rights, in a manner and under circumstances of aggravation and humiliation, showing a reckless and lawless disregard of the plaintiff's rights the law allows damages beyond the strict measure of compensation by way of punishment. Champion v Vincent, 20 Tex. 811; Joyce on Damages, § 28, and notes.

The facts are, as testified to by the plaintiff, that he applied to the defendant's agent at Almond for a ticket to Noland. The agent said he did not have any, and that "I could get on, and he would speak to the conductor about it, and that the fare would be 40 cents. I rode down the road about quarter of a mile, and the conductor came to me and said he wanted a ticket, and I handed him 50 cents, and said I wanted to go to Noland's Creek, and he looked at his book and said it would be 75 cents, and I asked him if he was not mistaken, and he said, 'No,' and I told him I would not pay 75 cents, and so he told me I would have to get off. I told him I had applied for a ticket and the agent said he didn't have any, and he said they did have tickets, and I told him I didn't know anything about it, only what they told me; that they told me they didn't have any tickets, and the fare would be 40 cents, and he told me then I would have to get off. So I told him, if he put me off, I would sue the railroad company, and he pulled the cord and stopped the train and I walked out. Q. What did he say in reply to you when you said you would sue the railroad company? A. He said he could not help that. Q. Is that all he said? A. I believe that is all he said. Q. Can't you remember what he did say when you said to him that you would sue the company? A. He said several words. I don't remember every word he said. Q. Think if you know anything else? A. I don't think of anything else. Q. Where did he put you off? A. I got off by his instructions. He told me to get off. Q. Where? A. About a quarter of a mile this side of Almond. Q. How far is the station you wanted to go to from there? A. About 14 miles by rail. Q. What were you doing at that time? A. I was working on Noland's Creek. Q. What were you getting a day? A. Dollar and twenty-five cents. Q. Did you put in a day's work? A. No, I walked in in the evening, and went to work the next morning. I didn't hire anything. I walked. I just lost a day's work, is all. Q. How much did you lose? A. The day. Q. Is that all you recollect about this transaction? A. Yes, I believe it is."

To entitle a passenger to such damages, his wrongful expulsion from the train must be attended by such circumstances as tend to show rudeness, insult, ""aggravating circumstances calculated to humiliate the passenger ***" Holmes v. Railroad, 94 N.C. 318; Rose v. Railroad, 106 N.C. 170, 11 S.E. 526; Knowles v. Railroad, 102 N.C. 66, 9 S.E. 7. The subject of punitive and compensatory damages has been discussed in many cases in our own reports. In the opinion in this case at the...