Hill v. Missouri Pac. Ry. Co., 2147.

• Decision Date: 20 July 1933
• Docket Number: No. 2147.,2147.
• Citation: 8 F. Supp. 80
• Parties: HILL v. MISSOURI PAC. RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana

8 F. Supp. 80

HILL v. MISSOURI PAC. RY. CO.

No. 2147.

District Court, W. D. Louisiana, Alexandria Division.

July 20, 1933.

T. A. Carter, of Alexandria, La., for plaintiff.

Hawthorn, Stafford & Pitts, of Alexandria, La., and Hudson, Potts & Bernstein, of Monroe, La., for defendant.

DAWKINS, District Judge.

Plaintiff alleges that all of his life he has been a telegraph operator, and while acting as such for the defendant at Tioga, La., in 1924, he was shot and wounded by a robber, attempting to hold up defendant's station at that point, and, in consideration for a release of the defendant from liability, signed by him, "he was to have a life-time position with defendant as telegraph operator, or until such time as he retired on a full pension," which would be at the age of seventy years; that he would be seventy years of age on April 20, 1933, but that on September 26, 1931, he was discharged upon the complaint that he had been on that date intoxicated, based upon a "trumped up charge for the purpose of dispensing with his services in order to avoid the pension that he was entitled to and further to avoid the agreement and understanding that was had at the time he was shot at Tioga, Louisiana"; and that he was denied a hearing.

Petitioner further alleges that he was earning $150 per month; that, upon attaining the age of seventy years, taking his life expectancy in consideration, at $150 per month he would be entitled to $5,000; that, in the alternative, if the court should hold that he is not entitled to be paid the said $5,000 "in lump sum," then he is entitled to $150 per month from September 26, 1931, until April 20, 1933, when he would be entitled to retire on pension, and that the defendant company should be compelled to pay the same. His prayer is for judgment in the sum of $5,000, and, in the alternative, for $150 per month from September 26, 1931, to April 20, 1933, and that thereafter "he be retired on a pension, and that the defendant company be compelled to pay the said pension in accordance with its rules and regulations thereto."

The suit was filed in the state court but removed to this court on the ground of diverse citizenship. Defendant has now filed an exception of no cause of action and, in the alternative, a plea of vagueness.

The exception of no cause of action is addressed to the proposition that under the law of Louisiana (Rev. Civ. Code, art. 167) an adult is prohibited from engaging his services for a longer period than...