New York Cent Co v. Mohney
| Decision Date | 01 March 1920 |
| Docket Number | No. 196,196 |
| Citation | 252 U.S. 152,64 L.Ed. 502,40 S.Ct. 287 |
| Parties | NEW YORK CENT. R. CO. v. MOHNEY |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Howard Lewis, John H. Doyle, and Frederick W. Gaines, all of Toledo, Ohio, for petitioner.
Mr. Albert H. Miller, of Toledo, Ohio, for respondent.
The respondent, whom we shall refer to as the plaintiff, brought suit against the petitioner, defendant, to recover damages for severe injuries which he sustained in a rearend collision on defendant's railroad, which he averred was caused by the gross negligence of the engineer of the train following that on which he was a passenger, in failing to look for and heed danger signals, which indicated that the track ahead was occupied. The plaintiff was employed by the defendant as an engineer, with a run between Air Line Junction, at Toledo, and Collingwood, a suburb of Cleveland, wholly within the state of Ohio. As an incident to his employment he was given an annual pass, good between Air Line Junction and Collingwood, which contained the release following:
'In consideration of receiving this free pass, each of the persons named thereon, using the same, voluntarily assumes all risk of accidents, and expressly agrees that the company shall not be liable under any circumstances, whether of negligence of itself, its agents, or otherwise, for any injury to his or her person, or for any loss or injury to his or her property, and that as for him or her, in the use of this pass, he or she will not consider the company as a common carrier, and liable to him or her as such.
'And, as a condition precedent to the issuing and use thereof, each of the persons named on the face of this pass states that he or she is not prohibited by law from receiving free transportation, and that the pass will be lawfully used.'
Having been informed that his mother had died at her home near Pittsburgh, Pa., the plaintiff, desiring to attend her funeral, applied to the defendant for, and obtained, a pass for himself and wife from Toledo to Youngstown, Ohio, via Ashtabula, and was promised that another pass for himself and wife would be left with the agent of the company at Youngstown, good for the remainder, the interstate part, of the journey to Pittsburgh. But the line of the defendant via Ashtabula to Youngstown was much longer and required a number of hours more for the journey than it did to go via Cleveland, using the Erie Railroad from that city to Youngstown, and for this reason, the record shows, the plaintiff Mohney before leaving home, decided that his wife should not accompany him and that he would make the journey by a train of the defendant, which used its own rails to Cleveland, and from Cleveland to Youngstown used the tracks of the Erie Railroad Company, and at Youngstown returned to the road of the defendant, over which it ran to Pittsburgh. The transportation which he had received via Ashtabula could not be used over the shorter route and therefore the plaintiff presentd his annual pass for transportation from Toledo to Cleveland, intending to pay his fare from Cleveland to Youngstown over the Erie Railroad, leave the train at the Erie station at Youngstown, inquire by telephone as to the time and place of the burial of his mother, and then go to the New York Central station, a half mile away, obtain the pass which was to be left there for him, and go forward to Pittsburgh on the next convenient train.
The train on which Mohney was a passenger was wrecked between Toledo and Cleveland. It had come to a stop at a station and the second section of the train ran past two block signals, indicating danger ahead, and collided with the rear car of the first section, in which Mohney was riding, causing him serious injury.
The case was tried on stipulated facts and the testimony of the plaintiff. The trial court concluded that Mohney, at the time he was injured, was on an intrastate journey using an intrastate pass, and that by the law of Ohio the release upon it was void as against public policy. Thereupon, a jury being waived, the court entered judgment in plaintiff's favor.
The state Court of Appeals, differing with the trial court, concluded that Mohney was an interstate passenger when injured and that the release on the pass was valid, under the ruling in Charleston Western Carolina Railway Co. v. Thompson, 234 U. S. 576, 34 Sup. Ct. 964, 58 L. Ed. 1476. But the court went further and affirmed the judgment on two grounds; by a divided court, on the ground that the pass was issued to Mohney as part consideration of his employment, and, all judges concurring for the reason that 'we are clearly of the opinion that the negligence in this case, under the evidence, was willful and wanton.' For these reasons it was held that the release on the pass did not constitute a defense to the action.
The Supreme Court of the state denied a motion for an order requiring the Court of Appeals to certify the record to it for review and the case is here on writ of certiorari.
The propriety of the use of the annual pass by Mohney for such a personal journey and that the release on it was not valid under Ohio law, were not questioned, and the sole defense urged by the railroad company was, and now is, that his purpose to continue his journey to a destination in Pennsylvania rendered him an...
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