Fulton v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 October 1951
• Docket Number: No. 16553,16553
• Citation: Fulton v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 220 S.C. 287, 67 S.E.2d 425 (S.C. 1951)
• Parties: FULTON v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

Page 425

67 S.E.2d 425

220 S.C. 287

FULTON v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.

No. 16553.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Oct. 24, 1951.

Willcox, Hardee, Houck & Palmer, Florence, for appellant.

McEachin, Townsend & Zeigler, Florence, for respondent.

FISHBURNE, Justice.

Respondent, a colored mail porter, brought this action against the appellant Railroad Company to recover damages for alleged slander and libel. This charge was based upon an investigation made by appellant concerning an alleged misrepresentation of fact by respondent relating to an accidental injury sustained by him while enroute from Florence, South Carolina to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on January 16, 1948. As a result of this investigation, the respondent was discharged.

In addition to the general denial of the allegations of the complaint, appellant interposed several defenses. It is alleged that appellant's agent, in conducting the investigation, acted in good faith; was not activated by malice or illwill toward the respondent; that the statements were not libelous or slanderous; and that the same were privileged.

When the case came on for trial in the Civil Court of Florence County, a verdict was directed in favor of appellant. Thereafter, in due course, this order was set aside and a new trial granted. In effect, this appeal is from the refusal of the trial court to direct a verdict in favor of the Railroad Company. In concluding his order granting a new trial on motion of respondent, the trial judge stated: 'There was practically no evidence introduced by the defendant to negative the inescapable inference raised by the plaintiff's testimony that the plaintiff had been dealt with unjustly, callously, and in gross disregard of his rights or the injury which would follow from his unreasonable discharge for dishonesty.'

The respondent, Fulton, commenced his employment with the Railroad Company in 1943, as a mail porter. His route commenced at Florence, in South Carolina, and ended at Rocky Mount, in North Carolina. He continued as such employee until April 3, 1948, when he was dismissed from service for allegedly misrepresenting facts regarding a physical injury sustained by him on appellant's passenger train while in the discharge of his duties, on January 16, 1948.

On the day in question, respondent boarded the train at Florence about 8:30 o'clock in the morning, and began the sorting of mail in the mail car. At some point between Florence and Fayetteville, while the train was in motion, he stepped on a sack of mail and sprained his ankle. Brunson, a colored train porter, upon entering the mail car, observed that respondent was limping and asked, 'What was the matter he was limping. He (Fulton) told me that he hurt this ankle last Summer; that something struck it and it was hurting him again.' Upon Brunson's suggestion he was given respondent's ticket book, with the statement that he would deliver it to the conductor.

The baggage master, Mr. White, also noticed that respondent was hopping around on his left foot, and told Fulton that he had better go to the hospital of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company at South Rocky Mount, and that he would attend to Fulton's duty of putting the mail off at North Rocky Mount. He did perform this service for Fulton, but denied that Fulton made any statement to him about suffering the ankle injury while on the train. The respondent did not leave the train at South Rocky Mount, but went a mile farther, to North Rocky Mount, where he was assisted in getting off the train. He secured a cab and was driven back to South Rocky Mount to the hospital. Upon examination, it was discovered that he had a fractured bone in his left ankle, and the leg was put in a cast.

Two days after the accidental injury, while respondent was in the colored ward of the hospital, Mr. Powell, the trainmaster, went there to interview him about the injury, and after questions and answers, reduced the statement to writing, which he had the respondent to sign. This statement was substantially what we have hereinabove set out. Two days later, Mr. Powell obtained signed statements in question and answer form, from Mr. White, the Baggage master, and Brunson, the train porter. In these statements it was denied that respondent told either White or Brunson that he had received his injury on the train, but they asserted that he told them that he got his ankle hurt the previous Summer.

It appears that on September 19, 1946, the respondent sprained his ankle and was attended by Dr. Lide of Florence, who was the local surgeon there for the Railroad Company. Dr. Lide X-rayed the ankle, found no indication of a fracture, but only a sprain in the point. The ankle was taped, and gave absolutely no trouble thereafter.

After obtaining the statements from White and Brunson, Powell, the trainmaster, on account of what he termed the wide divergence between the statements of the baggage master and the porter, and the statement of respondent, conceived it to be his duty to hold an investigation, in which respondent was charged with misrepresenting the facts regarding his injury alleged to have occurred on the train.

This hearing was held in the Railroad Station of appellant at Florence. Mr. Powell conducted the examination and reduced it to writing.

The first examination held by Mr. Powell was when he questioned respondent two days after his injury, while in the hospital. That examination sheet is thus headed:

'Accidents: Alleged personal injury to mail porter C. F. Fulton, Train 376 between Florence, S. C. and Dillon, S. C., January 16, 1948.'

The sheet containing the statements taken the day following Fulton's examination, and signed by White, Brunson, and Mr. Tinsley, the conductor, was captioned in the same way. The report of the investigation and the testimony of the witnesses taken in the Railroad Station at Florence on March 18, 1948, is thus captioned:

'Investigation: Misrepresentation of facts regarding injury alleged to have occurred to mail porter C. F. Fulton, colored on Train 376, between Florence and Dillon, January 16, 1948.'

In every statement, respondent asserted that he told Brunson, the porter, that the injury occurred on the train. On trial, appellant did not offer Brunson as a witness. Appellant in its brief now makes no contention as to any issue concerning the truth of the fact that the respondent on January 16, 1948, sustained an accidental injury on its train, resulting in a fractured bone in his left ankle. This is admitted without qualification.

Insofar as the facts are concerned, appellant's only contention is, that respondent did not tell White or Brunson, as falsely claimed by him, that he had suffered the injury on that day, but told them that the injury had occurred the previous Summer.

Throughout the statements taken by Mr. Powell, the trainmaster,--the one from Fulton at the hospital, and again at the hearing three months later, at Florence,--the inference may be drawn that he anticipated a suit for damages by respondent against the Railroad Company for personal injury. Time and again, the question appears on his examination of respondent: 'There was nothing in the operation of the train, sudden stop, lurch on curve, or anything of that type that caused you to be injured, was there?' The answer given by respondent was invariably in the negative. He said that the floor of the mail car was cluttered with mail sacks; that in sorting the mail, he stepped on a mail bag, and that his ankle turned and was sprained. Respondent did not know that he had suffered a fractured bone in his left ankle until he reached the railroad company's hospital at South Rocky Mount, and had the X-ray made.

Ostensibly, the object of the investigation was to get at the true facts, but the inference may be drawn from the record that its real purpose was to lay the groundwork for destroying the plaintiff's statement that he was injured on appellant's train, and to fortify the defense against an anticipated action for damages. Mr. Powell admitted on the witness stand that these statements and investigations are used as evidence against employees of the defendant company when they endeavor to sue for personal injury.

On April 3, 1948, respondent received the following letter from R. C. Murchison, Superintendent, who had been furnished with a copy of the testimony taken at the hearing in Florence:

'Rocky Mount, N. C., April 3, 1948

'40-2386

'C. F. Fulton

'Mail Porter

'Richmond, Va.

'This is to advise that you have been dismissed from the service fro misrepresenting facts regarding your personal injury while on train No. 376, between Florence and Dillon, S. C., January 16th, 1948.

'Please report to Trainmaster Flippen's office and arrange to turn in all company property and transportation held by you.

'R. C. Murchison, Superintendent.'

Copies of this letter were mailed to H. S. Flippen, Trainmaster at Richmond; E. H. Powell, Trainmaster at Florence, and J. C. Mixon, an officer or employee of the Railroad Company.

As a mail porter for appellant, respondent received as salary approximately $110 every two weeks. Following his discharge, and while still somewhat crippled, he sought and obtained employment in Florence, with a dry cleaning establishment, where he solicited clothing for cleaning. He received by way of compensation $6 or $7 per week, and continued this employment for about a month. He then went to Richmond and talked with a Mr. Purvis, an official of the Railroad Company, who had general supervision of mail porters, to see if he could again obtain employment with appellant. Mr. Purvis told him that he would have to see Trainmaster Powell, who had conducted the investigation at Florence, and who had found that Fulton had made false statements concerning the injury. Failing to get work or reinstatement with appellant, respondent finally procured employment with a dry cleaning establishment in Richmond,...