"Art. 72. Congress has power: * * * XXII. To enact laws governing general lines of communication, and governing post offices and mails."
"Art. 4. A crime is the voluntary infraction of a penal law, doing that which it prohibits or neglecting to do that which it commands.
"Art. 5. A misdemeanor is the infraction of police regulations or proclamations and good government.
"Art. 6. There are intentional crimes and crimes resulting from neglect."
"Art. 11. Negligent crimes exist—I. Where an act is done or a duty omitted which, although lawful in itself, is not so by reason of its consequences, if the accused fails to provide against such consequences through negligence, want of reflection or care, by not making proper investigations, by not taking necessary precautions. * * * III. Where the question relates to an act which is punishable solely by reason of the circumstances under which it is done, or by reason of a circumstance personal to the party aggrieved, if the accused is ignorant of such circumstances, through not having previously made
the investigations which the duty of his profession or the importance of the case demands."
"Art. 301. The civil liability arising from an act or omission contrary to a penal law consists in the obligation imposed on the party liable, to make (1) restitution, (2) reparation, (3) indemnization, and (4) payment of judicial expenses."
"Art. 304. Reparation comprehends: The payment of all the damages caused to the injured party, to his family or to a third person, with the violation of a right which is formal, existing and not simply possible, if such damages are actual, and arise directly and immediately from the act or omission complained of, or there be a certainty that such act or omission must necessarily cause, as a proximate and inevitable result.
"Art. 305. Indemnization imports: The payment of damages, that is, that which the injured party fails to enjoy as a direct and immediate consequence of an act or omission by which a formal, existing and not merely possible right is attacked, and of the value of the fruits of the thing usurped and already consumed, in the cases in which the same should be done conformably with civil right.
"Art. 306. The condition required by the two preceding articles, that the damages and injuries should be actual, shall not prevent that the indemnization of subsequent damages and injuries be exacted by a new suit, when they shall have accrued; if they proceed directly from, and as a necessary consequence of, the same act or omission from which resulted the previous damages or injuries.
"Art. 307. The payment of judicial expenses solely embraces those absolutely necessary, which the injured party incurs for the purpose of investigating the act or omission which causes the criminal proceeding, and to avail himself of his rights in such proceeding or in the civil suit.
"Art. 308. The civil responsibility cannot be declared except at the instance of the party entitled to recover.
"Art. 309. The judges who adjudicate upon the civil responsibility shall be controlled by the provisions of this title, in so far as its provisions extend; on other questions they shall follow, according to the nature of the suit, the provisions of the civil or of the commercial laws which may be in effect at the time of the happening of the act or omission causing the civil responsibility.
"Art. 310. The right to civil responsibility forms part of the estate of a decedent and descends to his heirs and successors,—provided it be not the case of the following article, or that it arise from injury or defamation, and that, the offended person having been able in his lifetime to bring his suit, he neither did so nor directed his heirs to sue; in such case the offense shall be understood as remitted.
"Art. 311. The act to enforce civil responsibility demanding support of a person guilty of homicide is personal, and belongs exclusively to the persons named in the end of article 318, as directly damaged. Consequently, such action forms no part of the estate of the deceased, nor is it extinguished although the latter pardon the offense in life."
"Art. 313. The judges who take cognizance of suits based upon civil responsibility shall endeavor that the amount and terms of payment be fixed by agreement of the parties. Failing in this, the provisions of the following articles shall be observed."
"Art. 321. In case of blows or wounds from which the injured party does not remain crippled, lamed or deformed, he shall have the right that the responsible party pay him all expenses of cure, the damages he may have suffered, and that which he may fail to gain during the time which in the opinion of competent persons he may not be able to do the work by which he subsisted. But it is essential that the inability to work should be the direct result of the wounds or blows, or of a cause which is the immediate effect of such blows or wounds.
"Art. 322. If the inability of the injured party to devote himself to his accustomed work be permanent, from the moment in which he shall recover and can properly devote himself to other and different work, which shall be lucrative and appropriate to his education, habits, social position and physical constitution, the civil responsibility shall be reduced to paying him the sum which his ability to earn in his new employment falls short of his daily earnings in his former occupation.
"Art. 323. If the blows or wounds cause the loss of any member not indispensable for work, or the person wounded or struck remain otherwise crippled, lamed or deformed, by that circumstance he shall have the right not only to the damages and injuries, but also to the sum which the judge may determine as extraordinary indemnity, considering the social position and sex of the person and the part of the body remaining crippled, lamed or deformed.
"Art. 324. The gain which the injured party fails to earn during his inability to work shall be computed by multiplying the sum which he formerly earned per day by the number of days of his disability.
"Art. 325. The provisions of the foregoing articles for computing the civil responsibility for wounds or blows shall be applied to all other cases where, in violation of a penal law, a person may cause the illness of another, or may have placed him under disability to work.
"Art. 326. No person shall be charged with civil liability upon an act or omission contrary to a penal law, unless it be proven: That the party sought to be charged usurped the property of another; that without right, he caused, by himself or by means of another, damages or injuries to the plaintiff; or
that, the party sought to be charged being able to avoid the damages, they were caused by a person under his authority.
"Art. 327. Whenever any of the conditions of the preceding article are established, the defendant shall be civilly liable, without regard to whether he be absolved or condemned to criminal liability."
"Art. 330. In order that masters may be held civilly liable through their clerks and servants, according to the provisions of articles 326 and 327, it is an indispensable condition that the acts or omissions of the clerks or servants, causing the liability, shall occur in the service for which they were employed.
"Art. 331. Under the condition of the preceding article those liable are: * * * Railroad companies."
"Art. 363. (Limitation.) The various actions by which the civil responsibility may be demanded, or the execution of a final judgment declaring that such responsibility has been incurred by the accused may be asked, shall be extinguished according to the terms and in the manner provided by the Civil Code or the Commercial Code, according to the nature of the demand and the subject-matter treated of.
"Art. 364. Amnesty shall not extinguish the civil responsibility, nor the actions to exact it, nor the legal rights which third persons may have acquired. Nevertheless, when the responsibility may not yet have been made effective, and the demand is not for restitution but for reparation of damages, of indemnity for injuries, or for payment of judicial expenses, the guilty person shall remain free from such obligations only when it is so declared in...
