Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern Railroad Company v. Brookfield

• Decision Date: 05 October 1908
• Citation: Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern Railroad Company v. Brookfield, 112 S.W. 977, 87 Ark. 409 (Ark. 1908)
• Parties: JONESBORO, LAKE CITY & EASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. BROOKFIELD
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

112 S.W. 977

87 Ark. 409

JONESBORO, LAKE CITY & EASTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. BROOKFIELD

Supreme Court of Arkansas

October 5, 1908

Appeal from Craighead Circuit Court; Jonesboro District; Frank Smith, Judge; reversed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

This is a suit by appellee against appellant for a penalty under sections 6611 and 6620 of Kirby's Digest. Those sections in so far as it may be necessary to set them out, are as follows:

"The maximum sum which any corporation, etc., operating a line of railroad in this State, shall be authorized to charge and collect for carrying each passenger over such line within the State, in the manner known as first-class passage, is fixed at the following named rates: On lines of railroad fifteen miles or less in length 8 cents per mile. On lines of railroad over fifteen miles in length and less than seventy-five miles in length five cents. Sec. 6611.

"Any of the persons or corporations mentioned in Sec. 6611 that shall charge, demand, take or receive from any person or persons aforesaid any greater compensation for the transportation of passengers than is in this act allowed or prescribed shall forfeit and pay for every such offense any sum not less than fifty dollars, nor more than three hundred dollars, and costs of suit, including a reasonable attorney's fee, to be taxed by the court where the same is heard on original action, by appeal or otherwise, to be recovered in a suit at law by the party aggrieved in any court of competent jurisdiction." Sec. 6620.

The appellant received from appellee the sum of twenty cents as first-class passenger fare for transportation over its road from the station of Jonesboro to the station of Nettleton, a distance of three miles and 1572 feet.

Appellee sued for and recovered penalties and attorney's fee under the above sections.

Judgment reversed and cause dismissed.

E. F Brown and W. J. Driver, for appellant.

The statute under which this action is brought is penal in its nature, and must be strictly construed. There is no provision for charging for a fractional mile, and nothing to prohibit the company from collecting the full rate for a mile. That the mile, is the unit or standard of measurement under the statute. 58 L.R.A. 651; 56 A. 139; 26 N.H. 92.

F. G. Taylor, for appellee.

1. Appellant had no right to charge full fare for four miles where the distance was less than three and one-third miles. 81 N.W. 439; 60 N.W. 436.

2. There is no proper bill of exceptions. The case should be affirmed. 84 Ark. 342.

OPINION

WOOD, J. (after stating the facts.)

Appellee insists that there is no bill of exceptions, but an examination of the transcript discloses that "a bill of exceptions," containing all that is necessary and proper to be included in a bill of exceptions, was presented to and certified and signed by the trial judge. True, this bill of exceptions contained also more than was necessary for a bill of exceptions to show, matters that were properly of record, but that did not have the effect to vitiate the bill of exceptions.

Second. The only question necessary to consider is whether or not appellant could charge twenty cents for first-class passenger fare over its road for a distance of three miles and a...