Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Southern Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 February 1931
• Citation: 36 S.W.2d 20,237 Ky. 618
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

36 S.W.2d 20

237 Ky. 618

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. SOUTHERN RY. CO.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

February 24, 1931

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County; Common Pleas Branch Fourth Division.

Action by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company against the Southern Railway Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Ashby M. Warren and Trabue, Doolan, Helm & Helm, all of Louisville for appellant.

Humphrey Crawford & Middleton, of Louisville, for appellee.

CLAY J.

The Southern Railway Company maintains an agency on its line at Huntsville, Ala. The agent sells tickets over the lines of the Southern Railway Company and the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company. In the month of April, 1927, Leola Crick and Clara Copeland purchased tickets at Huntsville, Ala., for a trip to Montevallo, Ala., and return. The Southern Railway operates trains in Alabama between Huntsville and Decatur and between Calera and Montevallo. The Louisville & Nashville Railway Company operates trains between Decatur and Calera, and, though it is possible to go from one of these points to the other over the Southern Railway, the route is much longer. The tickets which the young ladies purchased were sold for a round-trip between Huntsville and Montevallo. The last coupon called for transportation from Huntsville to Decatur over the Southern Railway. The next to the last coupon called for transportation from Decatur to Calera over the Louisville & Nashville Railway. The next coupon from the bottom called for transportation over the Southern from Calera to Montevallo. The next three coupons in reverse order covered the return trip over the Southern Railway, but did not indicate that they were for use over the Louisville & Nashville Railway. The young ladies used these tickets in going from Huntsville to Montevallo. Coming back, they used the first return coupon over the Southern Railway to Calera. Leaving the Southern Railway at that point, they boarded a north-bound Louisville & Nashville train for Decatur. As the return tickets were over the Southern Railway, the Louisville & Nashville conductor refused to honor them, and put the young ladies off the train.

Thereafter they each brought suits against the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company in the circuit court for Limestone county, Ala., to recover damages for their wrongful ejection by the conductor. By amendment they also charged that the man who sold them the tickets was the agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company, and negligently failed to fill out the coupons. On the filing of the suits the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company called on the Southern Railway Company to defend, and the Southern Railway Company refused to do so. The cases proceeded to trial, and resulted in a verdict in favor of each of the girls against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company in the sum of $1,500. The circuit court required each of the plaintiffs to remit the excess over $1,000, and entered judgment in favor of each for $1,000. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Alabama, the judgments were affirmed for $600 each. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co. v. Crick, 217 Ala. 547, 117 So. 167; Louisville & Nashville Railway Co. v. Copeland, 217 Ala. 556, 117 So. 176.

After the affirmance of the judgments, the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company brought this action in the Jefferson circuit court to recover the amount of judgments and interest, together with court costs and attorneys' fees, incurred in defending the Alabama actions. The petition specifically refers to the judgments in the lower court, the affirmance thereof by the Alabama Supreme Court, and cites the two cases in the Southern Reporter. The ground on which a recovery was sought is that the loss and damage resulting to plaintiff was due solely and entirely to the negligence of the defendant and its agent at Huntsville, Ala., in selling to the plaintiffs in the Alabama actions tickets which were invalid over the lines of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, thereby making it necessary for the conductor to put the ladies off the train. After its demurrer to the petition was overruled, the Southern Railway Company filed an answer, denying in the first paragraph certain allegations of the petition, and pleading in the second paragraph "that the final judgments which are the foundation of the plaintiff's claim against the defendant herein were rendered pursuant to opinions by the Supreme Court of Alabama, in which opinions the facts and law involved were decided as therein set out. Said opinions are now reported in 117 So. at pages 167 and 176, and are as follows." Then followed printed copies of the two opinions taken from the Southern Reporter. To this paragraph of the answer a demurrer was sustained on the ground that the judgment in the Alabama actions settled the issue of negligence between the plaintiffs in that action and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, but did not determine the issue of negligence between the two railroads. Thereafter the motion to set aside the order sustaining the demurrer to the second paragraph of the answer was overruled.

At the trial before the jury, plaintiffs in the Alabama actions, in addition to other facts, deposed as follows: On boarding the Louisville & Nashville train and presenting their tickets the conductor said that they were not marked clearly. They then told him that they bought the tickets in Huntsville to Montevallo, had ridden on them to Montevallo, and from Montevallo back to Calera. The conductor told them that they would have to get off and go back to Calera and have the tickets straightened out. He then told them to get off and follow the track back to the station. The conductor did not demand, or offer to allow them to pay, the cash fare to Decatur. H. A. Sanderson, disbursement clerk of the ...