Fowlks v. Southern Ry. Co

• Decision Date: 08 March 1899
• Citation: 32 S.E. 464,96 Va. 742
• Parties: FOWLKS. v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

32 S.E. 464

(96 Va. 742)

FOWLKS.

v.SOUTHERN RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

March 8, 1899.

Carriers—Damages—Contract of Carriage

Where a person purchased a ticket on the statement of the ticket agent that the train she was about to take made close connections at a certain point with another train going to her place of destination, which statement was erroneous, and such person, on arriving at such connecting point, was obliged to wait some time for such connecting train, and thereupon, in the face of a storm, and of her delicate state of health, she procured a buggy, and drove over a rough road to her father's house, she could not recover for the injuries resulting from such drive.

Error to law and equity court of city of Richmond.

Action by Eva C. Fowlks against the Southern Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff for $150, and she brings error. Affirmed.

Smith, Moncure & Gordon, for plaintiff in error.

B. B. Munford and H. C. Riely, for defendant in error.

KEITH, P. Mrs. Eva C. Fowlks sued the Southern Railway Company in the law and equity court of the city of Richmond to recover damages for injuries sustained by her in consequence, as she alleges, of the negligent act of the defendant company.

The facts upon which she relies to support her contention are as follows: On the morning of July 22, 1896, Mrs. Fowlks, a resident of the city of Richmond, purchased of the Southern Railway Company a ticket to Skin-quarter, a station on the Farmville & Powhatan Railroad, which crosses the Southern Railway at Moseley Junction, 25 miles south of Richmond. Skinquarter. her point of destination, is 8 miles east of Moseley Junction. The plaintiff had made this trip before in visiting her parents, and had always found the train of the Farmville & Powhatan Railroad made a close connection with the Southern Railway, and she could step from one train to the other. When she purchased her ticket at Richmond on the morning in question, she asked the agent whether the train which she then proposed to take would connect at Moseley Junction with the Farmville & Powhatan Railroad train for Skinquarter. He told her that it did, and she bought a ticket for Skinquarter, and boarded the train. Upon arriving at Moseley Junction, she discovered that no such connection would be made that day. It seems that she was pregnant; that the day was hot and sultry, and a storm was brewing, when she got off of the train. The Southern road had no depot there, and she failed to see a small ticket office of the Farmville & Powhatan Railroad, which had been recently constructed. She walked 300 or 400 yards from the place where the train stopped to a store, where she received such accommodations as it afforded. The Southern Railway having made no provision for getting her to her destination, she endeavored to find the means of private conveyance. After waiting In the store for about four hours, and suffering great anxiety, she succeeded in hiring a team, and set out for her father's home. It was raining at the time, but the owner of the team would not let it wait, and, as it was getting late, she thought It best to start. The road was very rough, and she was greatly jolted. Several hard showers came up during the drive, and she was wet through, and her baggage was also damaged. She was perfectly well when she got on the train at Richmond and when she got off at Moseley Junction. When she got to her father's house, she was suffering with abdominal pains and hemorrhage, from the womb. These pains continued till August 23, 1896, when she suffered a miscarriage. Since that time she has been in bad health, and has had another miscarriage.

After the evidence was closed, the defendant asked the court to exclude from the jury "all evidence of the plaintiff and witness Eva C. Fowlks, and which tended in any way to show that she suffered from the wetting, the cold, the jolting, the anxiety of mind, the pains, the subsequent sickness and miscarriage occasioned by her trip in the buggy from Moseley Junction to Skinquarter; and in like manner to strike out the testimony of the three medical experts tending to establish that the miscarriage complained of was the result and consequence of said wetting, cold, Jolting, anxiety of mind, " etc. The court sustained this motion, and struck out all of said evi-dence as requested by defendant's counsel, and to this action of the court the plaintiff

excepted.

A number of instructions were asked by the plaintiff, which the court refused to give, and this action of the court was also excepted to. Thereupon the court gave an instruction of its own, to which the plaintiff excepted, whereupon the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for $150, upon which...