Chance v. Lambeth
| Decision Date | 27 January 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 6200.,6200. |
| Parties | CHANCE v. LAMBETH et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Martin A. Martin and Oliver W. Hill, Richmond, Va., (Spottswood W. Robinson, III, on brief), for appellant and cross-appellee.
Collins Denny, Jr., Richmond, Va., (J. M. Townsend, Petersburg, Va. and Denny, Valentine & Davenport, on brief), for appellee and cross-appellant.
Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
This suit was brought by William C. Chance, a Negro, to recover damages from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company on the ground that he was wrongfully ejected on account of his race from a railroad car on which he was an interstate passenger on June 25, 1948, and also on the ground that he was subjected to unlawful arrest and imprisonment in connection with his ejection from the car. Jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship. There was a judgment for the defendant on the first cause of action, and for the plaintiff on the second cause of action, and cross appeals.
Judgment was entered for the defendant on the first cause of action, since it was found that the regulation was lawful and reasonable by the jury to which the question was first submitted and later by the judge when he concluded that the question was one of law to be decided by him.
Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff in the sum of $50 on the second cause of action under peculiar circumstances. The defendant moved for a directed verdict but was overruled; and the jury were instructed that if the plaintiff left the train peaceably, and arrest was not necessary to eject him, and if the Railroad Company caused the arrest, their verdict should be for the plaintiff. Specific questions were subsequently framed, one of which required the jury to say whether the defendant caused the wrongful arrest of the plaintiff. The jury were unable to agree on this matter and were relieved of further consideration thereof. Thereupon, at the request of the defendant, the jury were directed to find the damages suffered by the plaintiff by reason of his arrest, upon the assumption that he was wrongfully arrested at the instance of the defendant, and the jury found a verdict for $50. Thereafter the judge ruled that there was evidence tending to show that the defendant caused the arrest of the plaintiff and, being of the opinion that the arrest was unlawful, entered the judgment. It is conceded by the defendant that it stood upon its motion for directed verdict, and that the only question upon its appeal in this cause of action is whether the arrest was lawful.
Chance is a schoolteacher, 64 years of age. He had purchased from the defendant railroad company a round trip ticket from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to Philadelphia, and on the day in question was on his return trip. He had journeyed by the Pennsylvania Railroad from Philadelphia to Washington and there changed cars and proceeded by the Richmond Fredricksburg and Potomac Railroad to Richmond, and thence by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, when the trouble arose. When the train left Washington it was composed of five baggage and express cars and eleven passenger cars, which included five coaches, a diner and five Pullman cars arranged in that order. Under the company's regulations, the three coaches first in line were designed for Negro passengers and the next two for white passengers. The three forward coaches were equal in accommodation and comfort to the two that followed. The three forward coaches were crowded when the train left Washington and Chance was directed by a trainman to go to the rear. He did so and found a seat in the last coach and deposited his baggage. During the ride from Washington to Richmond both white and colored persons occupied this coach, and there was no difficulty or disturbance.
At Richmond the trainmen segregated the passengers, directing white persons in the first three coaches to go to the rear and colored persons in the last two coaches to go forward. With the exception of Chance the passengers complied. He refused to move and was told that if he persisted he would be put off the train and the police would be called since the regulations of the company required segregation of the races. He was not ejected at Petersburg, the first station south of Richmond, but later at Emporia police officers, to whom word had been sent ahead, boarded the train and took him off when he was pointed out by the conductor. He offered no physical resistance, and there was no disorder or violence. When he was put off the train the conductor gave him back his ticket and he was taken by the police officers to the police station and charged with disorderly conduct. He gave bond after a detention of about forty minutes and completed his journey home by bus. A few days later he returned to Emporia at the appointed time for the hearing before the magistrate. The conductor of the train also appeared, withdrew the charges and paid the costs, acting upon the instructions of the Railroad Company.
The regulations of the company upon which the decision of the case turns were issued to the trainmen in the form of bulletins as follows:
Testimony on behalf of the company indicated that the regulations were promulgated in accordance with the general sentiment of the community through which the railroad operates and usages and custom of the people, and that the purpose was to promote the comfort of the passengers and to preserve public peace and good order. Testimony on behalf of the plaintiff indicated that the practice of segregation in public conveyances in Virginia has been abandoned in large part by carriers since the decision of Morgan v. Virginia, 1946, 328 U.S. 373, 66 S.Ct. 1050, 90 L.Ed. 1317, without giving rise to violence or disorder.
It was also shown during the trial that there is no attempt to enforce segregation on cars of the Atlantic Coast Line while traveling by the R. F. & P. between Washington and Richmond, but when the train reaches Richmond the trainmen are instructed to enforce the regulation and to require white and colored passengers to move if they are not seated in the cars respectively assigned to them. However, if the cars are crowded in Virginia or elsewhere in the south, and there are not sufficient accommodations for all the passengers to get seats the trainmen sometimes ...
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