Osteen v. Southern Ry. Co.
| Decision Date | 27 August 1915 |
| Docket Number | 9184. |
| Citation | 86 S.E. 30,101 S.C. 532 |
| Parties | OSTEEN v. SOUTHERN RY. CO. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Greenville County; T. J Mauldin, Judge.
Action by R. M. Osteen against the Southern Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Cothran Dean & Cothran, of Greenville, for appellant.
J. J McSwain, of Greenville, for respondent.
This was an action tried before Judge Mauldin and a jury at the June term of court, 1914, for Greenville county, and resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $600. After entry of judgment, defendant appealed.
The action was for damages for an alleged negligent and willful conduct of the defendant in matters complained of. The plaintiff in substance alleged: That on February 9, 1914, he bought six tickets from Greenville to Gaffney for the transportation of a funeral party, consisting of himself and four others and the dead body of his sister-in-law, Mrs Peace; that the ticket of the corpse was handed to the station baggage agent by the undertaker, who gave him a check for the coffin; that on the train he presented to the collector the five tickets for the living members of the party; that he did not think to present the baggage check "representing the right of transportation for the corpse"; that, although he protested that he had bought a ticket for the corpse, the collector demanded and collected fare for it, and collected 70 cents in excess of the legal rate; that the conduct complained of was a violation of "the rights and feelings of the plaintiff as a passenger," to his damage $2,000. The answer of the defendant was a denial of allegations of the complaint.
The first five exceptions allege error on the part of the trial judge in not granting defendant's motion for a nonsuit. The first two are on the ground that there was no evidence for actual or punitive damages for which defendant was liable, and that there was no evidence that the plaintiff's right as a passenger had been invaded by the defendant, and that as far as the transportation of the corpse was concerned he had no legal rights that would entitle him to recover. The evidence shows that the plaintiff was a brother-in-law of the deceased, and at the request of the husband of the deceased he took charge of the necessary arrangements to transport the body from Greenville, where deceased died, to Gaffney, where the burial was to take place; that the husband was dazed and prostrated almost with grief at the death of his wife, and from this alone the inference can be drawn that the plaintiff was the representative of the husband and in charge of the party who accompanied the body for burial. He purchased the ticket for the corpse, and the undertaker got the check from the station baggage agent, and the corpse was received by the defendant for transportation duly checked, and the only thing the plaintiff was expected to do was to board the train on the ticket that he had purchased which entitled him to ride to Gaffney, S. C., and upon arrival there present the check and receive the corpse. He was entitled to ride in comfort, free and unmolested. The ticket collector had nothing to do with the body that was in the baggage car, properly received and checked by the proper party entitled to do so. The ticket collector not only demanded fare for the corpse that he had no right to do, but showed that he was careless and incompetent, not only in this, but that he did not know what the fare was from Greenville to Gaffney, but demanded 70 cents in excess of the legal rate, which he virtually extorted from plaintiff when he was on a sad mission, and made him uncomfortable, and no doubt vexed and annoyed him. The plaintiff was not a volunteer in the sense complained of. He was a brother-in-law of the deceased, and acting in behalf of the family and at their request in providing for the transportation of the deceased to the place of burial.
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