Hall v. Memphis & C. R. Co.

• Citation: 15 F. 57
• Parties: HALL v. MEMPHIS & CHARLESTON R. CO.
• Decision Date: 02 October 1882
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Tennessee

15 F. 57

HALL v. MEMPHIS & CHARLESTON R. CO.

United States Circuit Court, W.D. Tennessee.

October 2, 1882

The plaintiff, who is about 85 years of age, purchased tickets at reduced rates for himself, his wife, about 76 years of age and his daughter and her child, from Town Creek, a station on defendant's road, to Memphis and return, upon which a limitation was printed, 'not good after 30 days.' They were persons of the highest respectability. Going to Texas, they returned after the limitation expired, and the conductor refused to receive the tickets, demanding train fare. This being refused, they were ejected at the next station, as required by a regulation requiring the conductor to demand certain prescribed rates for passengers not holding tickets. The plaintiff insisted that he had purchased the tickets as unlimited tickets, and that the station agent has assured him that, notwithstanding the limitation, he could be carried on them at any time. This was denied by the agent and there was great conflict of proof on the subject of what transpired at the time of the purchase. The plaintiff offered to pay the difference between the price of the tickets and the regular unlimited tickets, and between the price of the tickets and the train fare, which was refused. He then offered to pay this difference to Collierville, a station further on, where he had friends. This was refused, and he was advised by the conductor to pay train fare to that station. He told the conductor that he would only leave by force, and laying hold of the seat refused to leave it. The conductor forced him out of it, and led or dragged him from the train, and the others were conducted to the platform. There was no hotel there, but a small station-house, in which there was a room in which the parties passed the night, under circumstances of great discomfort. His wrist was somewhat strained, and his wife strained her ankle on the platform.

There was much dispute as to the exact occurrences, the inadequacy of light furnished, and assistance to the platform; the plaintiff complaining that they were hurried off and left in the dark, to find their way as best they could, in unpleasantly damp and cool weather for people of their age while the conductor insisted that he acted with all the courtesy and gentleness possible under the circumstances, and with more attention than usual in like cases, because of the age of the parties.

It was not disputed that the business was disagreeable to the conductor, and that he was at much pains to persuade the plaintiff and other parties to pay the small sum demanded for fare to Collierville, at least, but that the plaintiff insisted on being put off with force unless his offers to pay only the difference between the price of the expired tickets and the train fare were complied with. The train fare to Collierville for the whole party was between three and four dollars. The plaintiff had ample means to pay train fare to either Collierville or Town Creek. The court directed a verdict for the defendant company, with a stipulation, however, to submit to a verdict for the extra fare paid by the plaintiff on the next day for tickets to his destination, if the court should conclude the company was liable for it. Subsequently a verdict was entered for the plaintiff according to the stipulation, and he moved for a new trial.

Wright & Folkes, for plaintiff.

Humes & Poston, for defendant.

HAMMOND J.

It was much argued at the trial and on this motion for a new trial whether, under this declaration, there could be any recovery ex contractu at all, and whether the action did not sound so entirely in damages that the plaintiff could not recover for any mere breach of the contract, irrespective of the question whether the plaintiff had been rightfully or wrongfully ejected from the train. The court was of opinion then, and now is, that this was an immaterial question, since, under our Code, abolishing all forms of action, a plaintiff may recover by a simple statement of the facts, be they what they may, if these facts entitle him to recover in any form. Tenn. Code, Secs. 2746-2748, 2896, 2975; Jerman v. Stewart, 12 F. 266, 267; Angus v. Dickinson, Meigs, 459; 5 Am.Law Rev. 205, 225. The court, therefore, put the defendant under a stipulation to submit to a verdict for the price of the tickets, not because the ejection of the plaintiff was adjudged wrongful, but because the facts showed that the defendant had refused to carry out its contract, and had incurred whatever liability attached for that breach. A verdict and judgment were subsequently directed, under the stipulation, for the plaintiff for the amount he paid for the tickets, which settled the right to recover on the facts, but limited the measure of damages to the price of the tickets. This action of the court assumed that the jury would have found the much-disputed facts in regard to the contract in favor of the plaintiff, and proceeded on the theory that he was entitled to be carried on the expired tickets from Town Creek to Memphis and back, and that the defendant company was guilty of a breach of its contract and liable for refusing to carry him. The case was treated as if the plaintiff had paid the extra fair demanded, as he did the next day, when he purchased new tickets and proceeded on his journey, and then sued for a refusal to carry him on the original contract.

It is now argued that, this being so, the plaintiff was wrongfully ejected, and the case should have gone to the jury under proper instructions as to the measure of damages. If the defendant company were complaining and demanding a new trial, I should not refuse it; for, clearly, the fact whether it made any contract other than that expressed on the limited tickets was much disputed, and the jury might have found the verdict either way, and the action of the court was wrongful as to the defendant company in depriving it of a jury trial on that question. But the stipulation was put upon the defendant to compel it to submit to a verdict on that question against itself, and disembarrass the case of all other considerations, except the one whether the plaintiff was entitled to recover for putting him off the train anything more than the price of the tickets. The proper direction would have been to find for the plaintiff the amount paid for the new tickets and interest, or not, in the discretion of the jury, instead of a direction to find for the defendant company. But I had not then fully made up my mind that the plaintiff was entitled to recover anything ex contractu, and sought to reserve that question by the stipulation. The real question in the case is one of the proper measure of damages. When the court directed a verdict for the defendant corporation, with the stipulation above mentioned, it determined that the price of the extra tickets was the proper measure of damages, and, taking the subsequent action of the court under the stipulation into view, the case stands in the attitude of a direction by the court, on all the facts, assuming conclusively in favor of the plaintiff that he had a contract entitling him to carriage, that the jury should find a verdict for the plaintiff for the price of the extra tickets, and he is entitled to a new trial if under any proper view of the facts or law he could have recovered more.

It is proper to remark that the court laid out of the case all questions of unnecessary force, for, on the plaintiff's own proof, and paying no attention to the conflict as to what was actually done, as appears by defendant's proof, he resisted the conductor, and not only provoked, but invited force to eject him; no doubt under the mistaken view of the law, as he himself expressed it, that 'he had a right to vindicate his constitutional and legal rights as a free American citizen;' that it was his duty to do so; and further, that resistance was necessary to secure his right of action against the company. He admits that much, and I do not doubt he felt that he was building up a more substantial claim for large damages by resistance. It is a common mistake, but where the conductor is acting lawfully, and doing what he has a right to do, the passenger must submit to his authority, and resistance is wholly unlawful. The courts will not, where a passenger is in the wrong, tolerate any nice discriminations about the force necessary to secure submission to the conductor's lawful authority and overcome the resistance, unless it may be where the conductor departs from the exercise of lawful force, and beats, wounds, or maltreats the resisting passenger in the ill-temper of belligerency, and thereby becomes an aggressor on his own personal account. Even here it would be remembered that the conductor is likewise human; while he should do his duty without unnecessary violence, and in the best of temper, a resisting passenger cannot expect the courts to erect delicate scales on which to weigh with exact nicety the force used to overcome his resistance. The conductor is somewhat like the master of a ship. He has police powers and disciplinary control over the train, and the quiet and comfort of the passengers and their safety are under his protection. He should be obeyed by the passengers, and the common notion that force must be invited to secure legal demands against his unlawful exactions is, in my judgment, erroneous and vicious. All the passenger need do is to express his dissent to the demand made upon him, and he need not require force to be exerted to secure his rights, certainly not to increase his damages. I have held in another case that even where the passenger is right and the conductor wrong, it is contributory negligence to resist him by engaging in an unnecessary trial of strength with...