Lake Erie & W.R. Co. v. Lucas

• Decision Date: 06 October 1897
• Citation: 18 Ind.App. 239,47 N.E. 842
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court
• Parties: LAKE ERIE & W. R. CO. v. LUCAS.

18 Ind.App. 239

47 N.E. 842

LAKE ERIE & W. R. CO.

v.LUCAS.

Appellate Court of Indiana.

Oct 6, 1897.

Appeal from circuit court, Benton county; David H. Flynn, Judge.

Action by Anna Lucas against the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

John B. Cockrum, Stuart Bros. & Hammond, and E. Grant Hall, for appellant. Will R. Wood, Chas. E. Thompson, and Fraser & Isham, for appellee.

BLACK, J.

The appellee recovered judgment against the appellant for expulsion from the appellant's train of cars upon which the appellee had entered as a passenger. A demurrer to the complaint was overruled. In the complaint it is shown that the appellee tendered the conductor the regular cash fare from Lafayette, where she entered the car, to Tipton, a station on appellant's railway, to which the train was run; but the conductor refused to accept the amount so tendered, and demanded 50 cents more, and threatened to stop the train, and eject the appellee therefrom, whereupon she tendered the regular cash fare from Lafayette to Dayton, the next station on appellant's road, but the conductor refused to accept, and stopped the train, and ejected the appellee. It is not shown that the regulations of the appellant provided for the discharge of passengers from the train on which appellee was riding either at Tipton or at Dayton. No presumption can be indulged against the defendant in such case, but the wrong of defendant must be affirmatively shown. It does not appear from the complaint that the expulsion was wrongful, and it is not shown that the appellant employed excessive force in ejecting the appellee. Railroad Co. v. Bills, 104 Ind. 13, 3 N. E. 611;White v. Railroad Co., 133 Ind. 480, 33 N. E. 273;Railway Co. v. Lightcap, 7 Ind. App. 249, 34 N. E. 243. The complaint was insufficient. The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with instructions to sustain the demurrer to the complaint.

WILEY, C. J., did not take part in this decision.