Atlantio Ry Co v. Laird

• Decision Date: 30 November 1896
• Docket Number: No. 64,64
• Citation: 17 S.Ct. 120,164 U.S. 393,41 L.Ed. 485
• Parties: ATLANTIO & P. RY. CO. v. LAIRD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

164 U.S. 393

17 S.Ct. 120

41 L.Ed. 485

ATLANTIO & P. RY. CO.

v LAIRD.

No. 64.

November 30, 1896.

[Syllabus from pages 393-395 intentionally omitted] A. T. Britton and A. B. Browne, for plaintiff in error.

George H. Smith, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice WHITE, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

It is not controverted that, under section 339 of the Code of Civil Procedure of California, a cause of action of the character of that set forth in the various complaints filed on behalf of plaintiff was required to be instituted within two years after the cause of action accrued.

The question to be determined, therefore, is whether the trial court erred in holding that the amendments effected by the second amended complaint did not set up a new cause of action; for, if the second amended complaint stated a distinct and independent cause of action, the bar of the statute should have been allowed to prevail. Railway Co. v. Wiler, 158 U. S. 285, 15 Sup. Ct. 877.

The contention of the plaintiff in error that there was a departure resulting from the amended petition is based upon two propositions: (1) That the parties defendant in the original complaint were sued jointly ex quasi contractu, and were liable only upon proof of a joint contract, while the amended petition proceeded upon a contract made only by one, and a different person than those originally sued; and (2) because certain averments in the petition as to the place of incorporation of plaintiff in error, and as to the character to ticket upon which the plaintiff traveled, changed the cause of action.

We will discuss these two contentions separately.

1. Was the action stated in the original complaint one against the defendants as distinct and separate corporations, or against them as a single entity or artificial being, and what was the nature of the cause of action?

It is urged by the plaintiff in error that as the complaint, after alleging that the defendants jointly owned and operated the line of road in question, and jointly committed the alleged negligent acts, charged that they together 'were a common carrier of passengers on said road,' such allegation must be construed as an averment that the defendants were a single company, and that it cannot be assumed that one or the other, by itself, had capacity to violate any duty of a common carrier of passengers, or that either had power to sue or be sued separately, and alone from the other.

This construction of the complaint is obviously a forced and unnatural one. In the caption of the complaint the two defendants were designated as distinct corporations and several defendants, while in separate paragraphs each defendant was alleged to be a corporation, duly incorporated under the laws of the state of Massachusetts, and having its principal place of business outside of the state of California. Soon after the filing of the complaint, each defendant presented its separate application for removal of the cause to the federal court. In that of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa F e road, it was averred that it was a corporation organized, existing and doing business under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Kansas. The Atlantic & Pacific Company averred in its application that it was a corporation duly created, organized, and existing under an act of congress, which, it was expressly alleged, authorized it to construct and operate, as a common carrier of passengers and freight, certain described lines of railroad, including the line of railroad upon which plaintiff received her injury. The answer filed on behalf of the defendants was 'joint and several,' and it was therein admitted that the defendant, the Atlantic & Pacific Company, plaintiff in error here, was operating the line of railroad in question. The case presented by the complaint, giving to the language employed the reasonable inferences which it should receive, was one where each of two corporations was proceeded against a common carrier of passengers, exercising their respective corporate powers concurrently, the two corporations acting together, just as several individuals might have done.

Looking then to the averments of the complaint, we find it stated that the defendants, as common carriers, jointly owned and operated a described line of railroad; that on November 3, 1890, the plaintiff was a passenger on a train of cars then being run by the defendants, which train was derailed and thrown from the track, and the plaintiff injured. Was this an action ex quasi contractu, as now claimed?

Before proceeding to answer this question, we observe that it seems manifest, from the attacks originally made upon the amended complaint, that this claim is an afterthought. The motion to strike from the files, demurrer, answer, and motion for judgment upon the pleadings, proceeded upon the assumption that the case of action stated in both complaints was subject to a limitation of two years, whereas it did not appear upon the face of the complaint but that the agreement, if any, made by the alleged contract was entered into in the state of California, in which event the statutory limitation for commencing the action would have been four years. The fact that a written contract was executed in Ohio, which it is claimed was established on the trial, was not at any time specially set up as a defense to the amended complaint.

It is clear that the original complaint is not susceptible of the construction now attempted to be given to it. Though it is alleged that the plaintiff was the holder of, and traveling upon, a certain ticket, no undertaking or promise by the defendants was averred, nor is there any allegation of the breach of any undertaking or promise. The reference to the ticket, joined with the allegation immediately preceding it, that the plaintiff was a passenger on the described line of railroad, was evidently introduced by the pleader to show the existence of the relation of passenger and carrier between the plaintiff and the defendants. Because of such relation, the duty to exercise due care in the carriage of the passenger was imposed upon the defendants, and from the recital of the negligent acts committed arose the implication of the failure of the defendants to perform that legal duty. As said by Martin, B., in Legge v. Tucker, 1 Hurl. & N. 500, 501:

'In the case of carriers, the custom of the realm imposes on them a duty to carry safely, and a breach of that duty is a breach of the law, for which an action lies founded on the common law, and which does not require a contract to support it.'

Legge v. Tucker was in form an action on the case for the negligence of a livery stable keeper in the care and custody of a horse. It was held that the foundation of the action was a contract, and that, whatever way the declaration was framed, it was an action of assumpsit. The line which distinguishes the case at bar from an action exquasi contractu is thus expressed in the remarks of Watson, B., who said (page 502):

'The action is clearly founded on contract. Formerly, in actions against carriers, the custom of the realm was set out in the declaration. Here a contract is stated by way of inducement, and the true question is whether, if that were struck out, any ground of action would remain. Williamson v. Allison, 2 East, 452. There is no duty independently of the contract,...