Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Hull

• Decision Date: 29 May 1902
• Citation: 68 S.W. 433,113 Ky. 561
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. HULL. [1]
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

68 S.W. 433

113 Ky. 561

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. HULL. ^[1]

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

May 29, 1902

Appeal from circuit court, Webster county.

"To be officially reported."

Action by George W. Hull against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company to recover damages for delay in the shipment of a corpse. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Yeaman & Yeaman, Gordon & Gordon, H. W. Bruce, E. W. Hines, and B D. Warfield, for appellant.

L. P Little, W. A. Taylor, G. W. Hickman, and Baker & Baker, for appellee.

HOBSON J.

The wife of appellee, G. W. Hull, died at Ashville, N. C., on May 26, 1900. He lived at Slaughtersville, Ky. and started home with the corpse of his wife. He bought tickets to Nashville for himself, child, and the corpse. About sunup, as he was approaching Nashville, he saw the conductor, and had him to telegraph to the ticket agent at Nashville to have the tickets ready for him. He did this for fear of want of time between the arrival of his train and the departure of the train for Slaughtersville. When he got to Nashville he went immediately with his little girl to the ticket office, and told the agent he wanted two whole tickets and a half ticket to Slaughtersville. The agent said to him to get back in line, and wait until his turn came. He said, "Didn't you get a telegram to have these tickets ready?" The agent answered, "Yes; but I knew you had plenty of time and didn't get them ready." Hull then took his place in the line, and after a while got up to the window and received his tickets. He then said, "One of these tickets is for a corpse." The agent answered, "I know it, and have it already marked." Hull then asked "What must I do with the corpse ticket?" The agent said, "Take that and show it to the baggage master in the baggage room." Hull went immediately to the baggage room, and handed the baggage master the corpse ticket, telling him he had a ticket for a corpse. The baggage master punched it and handed it back to him. Hull then said, "Now, who must I give it to?" He said, "Keep it and give it to the conductor on the train. That is all you have to do. You need not be uneasy. Everything will be all right." The corpse was then between the baggage-room door and the gate, setting on a truck between the door and the fence on the platform. Hull got on the train, and sat there some minutes. Presently he saw his trunk pass to the baggage car, and, not seeing the corpse go by, went out to the conductor, who was standing beside the train, showed him his tickets, and told him he had a ticket for a corpse, and wanted to be sure that everything was all right. He wanted to know who to give the ticket to. The conductor said: "That is all right. Whenever you get a ticket like that, that is all you have got to do. I will take that ticket up on the train." Hull replied: "I am uneasy. I am afraid everything isn't all right. I have seen my trunk pass along, but I haven't seen the corpse." Then the conductor halloed to the porter and asked if there was a corpse on the train. The porter said, "No." The conductor ran into the baggage room to see about it. He was gone probably two minutes, and when he came out the train started immediately. He came into the coach where Hull was, and told him that his wife's remains had been sent off on the Northwestern. Hull said: "How did this happen? This is an awful thing." He said: "I don't know. It is a terrible blunder. It is an inexcusable mistake." Hull asked what he was going to do about it, and he said that he would telegraph to the superintendent, and get the box brought back and sent up on another train. At Earlington he brought Hull a telegram, stating that he had found the corpse; had secured it on some other road; that it would be sent up on the first passenger train; and for him to extend to Hull any courtesy he could. Hull reached Nashville at 6:40 a.m. The train for Slaughtersville left at 7:10 a. m. The conductor was still looking for the corpse, when he was ordered by the station master to pull out, as it was then two minutes past leaving time. The box containing the corpse had tacked upon it a card reading: "Mrs. G. W. Hull, Slaughtersville, Kentucky." Hull had telegraphed to Slaughtersville that he would come on he morning train, and have the burial that evening. The train was due at Slaughtersville at noon. They got everything in readiness for the funeral, and, when the train arrived without the corpse, the relatives who had come to the station returned home, and those who had come to the church for the funeral, three miles in the country, were sent home. Some time after midnight the corpse reached Slaughtersville, and it was buried the next day. It rained the next morning, and a great many did not come. Quite a concourse had assembled the day before. Hull had been nursing his sick wife six months. His vitality was much exhausted, and he was in a weakened condition, so that it was only by a strong effort of the will that he was able to be on his feet. He seemed a good deal confused, looked like he was almost broken down, and was terribly worried over his trip, and the way he had been disappointed. He filed this suit to recover damages of the railroad company, and proved on the trial substantially the above facts. The proof for the company was to the effect that when the corpse reached Nashville it was placed on a truck by the side of the train, and remained there until after the Slaughtersville train left. After this it was taken to the baggage room of the road over which it had come, and later in the day, when the mistake was found out, was taken over to the baggage room of appellant. The baggage master and the conductor denied the statements of Hull given above, and testified that the corpse was not in charge of appellant's agents until after the train for Slaughtersville had left. Their testimony is confirmed by a number of employés about the station. Hull's version of the transaction is confirmed by his little girl, by the punched marks in the corpse ticket, and some other circumstances. The jury to whom the case was submitted returned a verdict in favor of Hull for $1,640, and the defendant appeals.

The court instructed the jury that if, after Hull purchased the tickets, the box containing the corpse was placed in charge of the defendant in reasonable time for shipment on the train, and defendant agreed to ship it on that train, and negligently failed to do so, or if defendant had a reasonable time after receiving the corpse to ship it on the morning train by the exercise of proper diligence, and for the lack of such diligence it was not so shipped, and its arrival at Slaughtersville was delayed on account thereof, they should find for the plaintiff such an amount in damages as would reasonably compensate him for the trouble, inconvenience, and cost caused by the delay, and they might also allow a reasonable amount for any mental anguish the plaintiff suffered by reason of the delay. But if he failed to inform the agents of the defendant as to the whereabouts of the corpse, or failed to notify them to put the same on the morning train for Slaughtersville, the jury should find for the defendant, unless the defendant's baggage agent assured him when he punched his ticket that defendant would look after putting the corpse on the train. The jury were also told to find for the defendant if, after receiving the box, its agents did not have a reasonable time, by the exercise of proper diligence, to put it on the train and ship it to Slaughtersville, and that they could in no event award anything to the plaintiff on account of the delay, inconvenience, or distress suffered by those who attended at the depot or graveyard, or who were prevented from attending the burial by the delay in the arrival of the corpse.

It is earnestly insisted for appellant that there is no property in a corpse (Keys v. Konkel, 119 Mich. 550, 78 N.W 649, 44 L. R. A. 242, 75 Am. St. Rep. 423), and that mental suffering cannot be recovered for in a case...