Seabd. Air Line Ry v. O'quin

• Decision Date: 20 November 1905
• Citation: 52 S.E. 427,124 Ga. 357
• Parties: SEABOARD AIR LINE RY. v. O'QUIN.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

52 S.E. 427

124 Ga. 357

SEABOARD AIR LINE RY.

v.O'QUIN.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Nov. 20, 1905.

1.Carriers—Forcible Expulsion of Passenger—Punitive Damages.

Punitive damages are recoverable in an action against a railroad company by a passenger, where the evidence shows that he was, without justification or excuse, forcibly expelled from its train by the conductor or other employes in charge thereof.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 9, Cent. Dig. Carriers, § 1489.]

2.Same—Torts of Servants.

When a common carrier undertakes, through its servants, to exercise its rights to eject from its cars passengers who have been guilty of disorderly conduct, it acts at its peril in determining their identity; and if by mistake one who has in no way forfeited his rights as a passenger be ejected, the carrier will be liable to respond in damages for the tort thus committed by its servants, their good faith being only available in defeating a recovery of punitive damages.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 9, Cent. Dig. Carriers, §§ 1412, 1488.]

3.Judgment — Conclusiveness—Criminal Prosecution.

In such an action it is not permissible for the carrier to plead or prove the conviction of the plaintiff, in a criminal prosecution brought against him on the charge of using profane and vulgar language in the presence of females, while upon its cars on the occasion when he was forcibly expelled from the train.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 30, Cent. Dig. Judgment, § 1310.]

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court, Tattnall County; B. T. Rawlings, Judge.

Action by Preston O'Quin against the Seaboard Air Line Railway.Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error.Affirmed.

This was an action to recover damages from the defendant for unlawfully and wrongfully, expelling the plaintiff from its cars on which he was riding as a passenger, and for ejecting him with unnecessary force and causing him to be arrested for an offense alleged to have been committed on the cars.The jury on the trial found a verdict for $500 damages.The defendant made a motion for a new trial, which was refused by the court and it excepts to the judgment overruling this motion.The evidence for the plaintiff tended to prove that he was a passenger on the cars of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and was traveling from Savannah to his destination at Fitzgerald; that when the train reached the station of Collins, in Tattnall county, certain detectives, employes of the railway company, forcibly ejected him from the train, without allowing him to get his baggage, and turned him over to the marshal of Collins; that on the next day a warrant was sued out in Bryan county at the instance of one of the detectives who ejected him from the train, and he was arrested on this warrant and had to give bond for his appearance before the committing court; that the warrant was subsequently dismissed for want of prosecution; that at the time of his ejection he was conducting himself in a proper and orderly manner; and that his previous conduct had given no pretense to the servants of the railway company for expelling him from the train, causing his arrest, and suing out a warrant against him.The defendant offered evidence to show that at the time the plaintiff boarded its cars at Savannah he was partially intoxicated; that while on its cars he used profane and obscene language in the presence of the passengers, among whom were several females; that because of such improper conduct he was expelled from the train by its employes; and that in ejecting him no more force was used than was necessary.

Brown & Randolph, Tom Eason, and J. V. Kelley, for plaintiff in error.

W. T. Burkhalter and Jos. K. Hines, for defendant in error.

EVANS, J.(after stating the facts).I.The first ground of the amended motion for a new trial complains that the court erred in charging the jury: "In every tort there may be aggravating circumstances, either in the act or in the intention; and in that event, the jury may give additional damages, either to deter the wrongdoer from repeating the trespass, or as a compensation for the wounded feelings of the plaintiff."The error assigned on this charge is that it was not applicable to the facts of the case.The charge was almost a literal excerpt from Civ. Code 1S95, § 3906, which is applicable in all cases where there has been a trespass upon or unlawful invasion of the personal rights of the aggrieved party.W. & A. R. v. Turner, 72 Ga. 292, 53 Am. Rep. 842;City & Suburban Ry. v. Brauss, 70 Ga. 368;Georgia R. v. Homer, 73 Ga. 257;Georgia R. Co. v. Dougherty, 86 Ga. 744, 12 S. E. 747, 22 Am. St. Rep. 499.The case made by the plaintiff is that, while traveling as a passenger and behaving in a decorous manner, he was ruthlessly ejected from the defendant's train by its servants, without any excuse and without informing him why he was so treated; that he was forcibly expelled; and that in ejecting him the company's employes, in the presence of other passengers, roughly took hold of his person and jerked him from the train.If this was the truth of the case(and the verdict of the jury solves this question in favor of the plaintiff), the conduct of the railway company's employes evinced a reckless disregard of the plaintiff's rights, their wrongful act amounted to a trespass upon his person, and the charge of the court was applicable to the case as made out by the evidence introduced in his behalf.Georgia R. v. Homer, supra;Head v. Railway CO., 79 Ga. 358, 7 S. E. 217, 11 Am. St. Rep. 434;Atlanta St. Ry. Co. v. Hardage, 93 Ga. 457, 21 S. E. 100;Southern Ry. Co. v. Harden, 101 Ga. 203, 28 S. E. 847.

2.The following charge was also excepted to: "I charge you further, in determining this question and in dealing with the passenger while on the train, the railroad was bound to...