Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Catron

• Decision Date: 01 December 1897
• Citation: 102 Ky. 323,43 S.W. 443
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. CATRON.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

43 S.W. 443

102 Ky. 323

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. CATRON.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

December 1, 1897

Appeal from circuit court, Knox county.

"To be officially reported."

Action by John H. Catron against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company Judgment was rendered for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Wilson & Rawlings and J. W. Alcorn, for appellant.

James D. Black and Tinsley & Faulkner, for appellee.

WHITE J.

This action was begun in the Knox circuit court by the appellee against appellant for damages. The cause of complaint and damages alleged by plaintiff are that in June, 1894, appellee was the sheriff of Knox county; that, as such officer, he at that time had a prisoner in his charge,-a negro lunatic; that the appellee had, by proper orders and judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, been directed to take the negro lunatic to the asylum at Lexington, Ky.; that, while executing this order and judgment, appellee bought two first-class tickets (one for himself, and one for the lunatic) from Barboursville to Winchester, over appellant's road; that, from Barboursville to Livingston appellee and his prisoner occupied the smoking car for white persons, but that from Livingston, where he changed trains to Richmond, appellee was compelled by the conductor in charge of the train to ride with the prisoner in the coach set apart for colored persons exclusively, as, by the laws of Kentucky, he was required to do. For this alleged injury and insult he claimed judgment in damages. To this petition the appellant answered after a demurrer to same had been overruled. This answer is a general and special denial of all the facts alleged, except that appellee was the sheriff in charge of a prisoner, and bought the two tickets, as alleged. It denied that appellee was compelled to ride in the colored coach, or requested so to do, by any officer or agent of appellant. The issue thus presented was tried before a jury, and they returned a verdict for appellee for $1,250, and judgment was rendered thereon; and, after appellant's motion for new trial had been overruled, it appealed to this court.

The decision of this case requires a construction of the separate coach law; being the act of May 24, 1892, and embraced by sections 795 to 801 of the Kentucky Statutes. Section 795 reads, so far as applicable: "Any railroad or corporation *** are hereby required to furnish separate coaches or cars for the travel or transportation of the white and colored passengers on their respective lines of railroad. Each compartment of a coach divided by a good and substantial wooden partition, with a door therein, shall be deemed a separate coach, within the meaning of this act, and each separate coach or compartment shall bear in some conspicuous place appropriate words, in plain letters, indicating the race for which it is set apart." Section 796 provides that railroad companies shall make no difference or discrimination in the coaches set apart for white and colored passengers. Section 797 provides a penalty against railroads in the sum of from $500 to $1,500, for each failure. Section 798 gives the circuit courts jurisdiction of the offenses. Section 799 provides: "The conductors or managers on all railroads shall have power and are hereby required to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her respective car or coach or compartment, or should any passenger refuse to occupy the car, coach or compartment, to which he or she may be assigned by the conductor or...