Knoell v. Kansas City, C. C. & St. J. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 05 November 1917
• Docket Number: No. 12378.,12378.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: KNOELL v. KANSAS CITY, C. C. & ST. J. RY. CO. et al.

198 S.W. 79

KNOELL v. KANSAS CITY, C. C. & ST. J. RY. CO. et al.

No. 12378.

Kansas City Court of Appeals. Missouri.

November 5, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Buchanan County; Thomas B. Allen, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Suit by Dorothy Knoell against the Kansas City, Clay County & St. Joseph Railway Company and its receivers. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.

John E. Dolman, of St. Joseph, for appellants. Culver & Phillip, of St. Joseph, for respondent.

BLAND, J.

The defendants operate an interurban electric railway between Kansas City, Mo., and St. Joseph, Mo. Plaintiff brought this suit charging that defendants, through their agent in charge of their ticket office in Kansas City, Mo., "wrongfully, wantonly, unlawfully, maliciously, willfully, and in utter disregard of the courtesy due to plaintiff," "declared, charged and insinuated," "in an insolent and insulting manner," that plaintiff was endeavoring to defraud defendants by obtaining a ticket from Kansas City to St. Joseph, Mo., without paying for the same. Plaintiff recovered judgment in the sum of $2 actual damages and $498 punitive damages.

Plaintiff testified that on January 3, 1916, she, in company with three other ladies, went to defendants' ticket office in Kansas City, Mo., and purchased from defendants' ticket agent tickets to St. Joseph, Mo. What happened is best told in plaintiff's own language:

"Q. What occurred when you entered the station of this defendant company in Kansas City? A. As I entered the depot, my friend, Mrs. Miller, also Mrs. Bennett stepped in front of me and purchased their tickets, and left the depot to get on the car. I decided to buy a ticket for my aunt, as well as myself, and I laid down $2, and I asked the agent for two tickets. He gave me one ticket and some odd change, perhaps 97 cents, and I said, `I am paying for two tickets,' and I left the ticket and the change lay on the window. I said `I beg your pardon, I owe you a few odd pennies.' The fare was $1.03 which I had not thought of just at that moment. I laid the six pennies there, and I said, `I am paying for two tickets; kindly give me another ticket.' He said, `I gave you another ticket.' I said, `I beg your pardon, you did not.' In the meantime he took in the 97 cents for the second ticket and the odd pennies, too, but he never gave me the second ticket, saying that he had already done so. I said: `You are mistaken. I am sure that you have never given me but one ticket.' He became quite loud in his language then and somewhat excited, and said that he knew that he had given me two tickets. I said, `Well, I know you have never given me but one.' And he said, `Well, I know I did.' He says, `I will bet you have got it in your pocketbook.' And I said, `Well, I know I haven't.' And he said, `I want to see in it,' and I said, `Well, that is the thing I will be very glad to let you do.' I took the contents out of my purse and laid them on the window. Of course, I did not have a ticket in it, and so then he said, `Well, then, maybe you have dropped it on the floor.' I looked, but of course I had never had it, so it was not on the floor. I says, `Perhaps you have dropped it on the floor in your cage,' but he did not look to see. At any rate, it developed that he had not, and then he said, `Well, I gave you two tickets.' And then I said, `Well, I am sure you did not.' And he said, `Well, then, some of your friends have it.' And so my aunt said, `I will go and look and see.' So she went on the car, but they had just the one ticket apiece, and she came back and told the young man that that was the case. He still insisted that I had the two tickets, and I told him that I did not, that I had only the one, and that I had not picked it up and it was still on the window, and then he said, `Well, I know that you have got it.' He said, `I will bet you have got it in your pocketbook,' and I looked again when he accused me the second time, but I did not have it, and so he said, `Well, I sell those tickets by numbers.' He says, `Let me see your number,' and I showed him the number. It was number 77,889, the one that was lying on the window. Then he said, `Well, I sell those tickets by numbers, and, if they are not just the way I have sold them to you and your friends, why, I will find the number that is missing and that will prove that you have it,' and so my aunt went out to get my friends' tickets and brought them in and showed him the numbers. Their numbers were 77,890 and 77,891. They evidently sell these tickets backwards. At least that is the way their numbers were, of the parties that bought them first. * * *

"Q. Just tell what occurred there. A. The thing that occurred, he looked at the tickets that we brought him in, and it did not seem to meet with his approval. Q. That is, your aunt brought in 77,890 and 77,891, the two tickets that your friends had bought? A. Yes, sir. Q. Then what did he say? A. Well, he said that he was sure — that he did not find the ticket that was missing, and that he was sure that I must have it. Q. Then, what did he say was the number of the missing ticket? A. 77,888. Q. 77,888? A. Yes, sir. Q. That was the ticket that he said he had sold to you? A. Yes, sir. Q. Together with 77,889, the other ticket which was laying on the counter? A. Yes, sir. Q. And after your aunt came in and gave him these other numbers, what did he say then, if anything, about somebody else on the car having it, or something of that sort? A. I mentioned that some one else might have it, that some one else on the car might have it. Q. Just what was said, now? A. Well, he said, `You can go out and see.' I said: `No, that is not my place to see; that is your place to see about that.' And so then I said, `However, aren't you going to give me another ticket or my money back?' He said, `I certainly will not give you another ticket or your money back,' and I said, `Well, that is the most unfair treatment I have ever received.' * * * Q. Well, how did you get to St. Joseph then? Did you buy a ticket or pay cash fare? A. I took the one ticket that laid on the window, and my aunt paid cash fare. Q. So that you were out the $1.03 you had paid for the other ticket? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many people were there in the waiting room during this scene at the window? A. I could not give the exact number. There might have been eight or dozen, or something like that, or maybe more. Q. What was the tone of the voice of the agent during this discussion, as to whether it was loud, so that other people in the waiting room heard the argument? A. It was very loud; every one could hear. Q. Did it attract any attention there? A. Yes, sir. Q. How much attention? A. They were all listening and some of them were talking about it. Q. What was the manner of the agent in this discussion? A. Well, he spoke in loud insolent tones. * * * Q. What effect did this have upon you? A. Well, it made me very nervous and sick for several days. * * * Q. State how you felt, the mental effect it had on you? A. I felt very much embarrassed and very much humiliated. * * * Q. Indicate to the jury just what he said about the pocketbook? A. The way, `I think you have got that ticket in your pocketbook. I want to see in your pocketbook.' Q. What did you do? A. I opened my pocketbook and took out the contents and let him see, but I did not have it. Q. Where did you put the contents? A. On the ticket window. Q. On the desk of the ticket window? A. Yes, sir. * * * Q. What did he say when you showed him your pocketbook? A. He was still not convinced. Q. Did he look in your pocketbook — I mean look at the contents of the pocketbook? A. Yes, he looked, and still insisted that I had it."

Mrs. Hahn, one of plaintiff's witnesses, testified that, after she came back from hunting among the other ladies for the ticket and was unable to find it, the agent said, "There, I told you that I had given you people a ticket, No. 88 is missing." He says, "Some of you must have that ticket." She (plaintiff) said: "No, we haven't got the ticket; aren't you going to give us another ticket or our money?" And he said, "I sure don't intend to give you the ticket or your money, for you people have got the ticket — some of you have it." "I know we talked there quite a little bit about the money and the ticket, but I don't remember just exactly everything that was said." On cross-examination, Mrs. Hahn, when asked whether there was any direct accusation made by the agent to plaintiff or herself "that either one of you had stolen the ticket," replied that he, the agent, "said she had it"; that "he may not have used that word" stealing, "but insisted that we had that ticket," and "he accused us of taking it." This witness also testified that plaintiff was "very much humiliated and embarrassed," that "she was in quite an embarrassed nervous state and felt terribly bad;" that she "showed it quite plainly."

Witness Mrs. Miller testified that plaintiff seemed to be very nervous and agitated and had a severe sick headache the day afterward and was sick for several days. Mr. Lowe, another witness, testified that the agent "became very vehement and talked rather impudent to the young lady"; that "I...