St. Louis Southwestern Railroad Company v. Alverson

• Decision Date: 20 April 1925
• Docket Number: 323
• Citation: 271 S.W. 27,168 Ark. 662
• Parties: ST. LOUIS SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. ALVERSON
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

271 S.W. 27

168 Ark. 662

ST. LOUIS SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. ALVERSON

No. 323

Supreme Court of Arkansas

April 20, 1925

Appeal from Lonoke Circuit Court; George W. Clark, Judge; affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

J D. Turney, A. H. Kiskaddon and W. T Wool-dridge, for appellant.

E H. Timmons, for appellee.

OPINION

SMITH, J.

On August 8, 1923, appellee, a young lady, and Howard Gentry, a young man, who is her cousin, bought tickets from the appellant railroad company from North Little Rock to Geridge, a station on appellant's railroad, for which they each paid the sum of $ 1.44. After purchasing the tickets they boarded the train and became passengers in a coach which went through from North Little Rock to Gillette, a station beyond Geridge. This train passed through England en route to Geridge, and at England the car in which appellee was a passenger was attached to a train which ran from England to Gillette. After the train left North Little Rock the conductor in charge of the train took up the tickets of appellee and her cousin, and placed a ticket check in the curtain of the window by which they were seated. The conductor should have punched these tickets to show that they had been used to England, and should have returned them, as there was a change of conductors at England.

The appellee did not leave the coach at England. The railroad company has a rule that no one is allowed to enter a train without exhibiting to some employee of the company a ticket entitling the holder to passage on the train. An employee of the company performed this service for it at England.

After the train left England the new conductor, Whose name was Williamson, went through the train collecting fares, and, when he came to appellee, he demanded her fare. She explained that she had no ticket, as she had given it to the conductor in charge of the train out of North Little Rock. Conductor Williamson said it was strange that the first conductor had not returned the ticket, as he should have done. Appellee explained that she did not know this, and that she supposed the first conductor knew what he was doing, and she called the attention of Conductor Williamson to the ticket check in the window curtain which the first conductor had placed there. Notwithstanding this explanation, Conductor Williamson stated that appellee and her companion would each have to pay 58 cents--the fare from England to Geridge--or he would put them off the train. They told the conductor that they did not have that much money, but he said that made no difference, as he was not running an excursion train. A passenger sitting near appellee and her companion stated to the conductor that he had seen them buy tickets in North Little Rock, but the conductor told this passenger to keep his bill out of it.

The conductor told appellee and her companion they would have to get off, and gave a signal for the train to stop. The conductor opened the door of the coach and told appellee and her companion to come on out, and they got up and went to the door of the coach, and, as young Gentry was about to get off, appellee asked the conductor to put her baggage off at Geridge. The conductor asked her if she had a baggage check, and she told him she had, and she exhibited it to him. The conductor examined the baggage check, and, after doing so, told appellee and her companion to go back and sit down, that he would let them go on to Geridge, but that he would put the trunk off at Humnoke and hold it for the $ 1.16, the amount of the two fares to Geridge.

Appellee and young Gentry, her cousin, were on their way to visit Tom Alverson, a brother of appellee. Mr. Alverson boarded the train at Humnoke to meet his guests, and they explained what had happened to him, and he told the conductor he would pay the two fares the next morning on the return trip of the train, as he did not have with him the amount of money required to pay the two fares. This was not satisfactory to the conductor, and the trunk was put off at Humnoke. The conductor testified that he did this because there was a station agent at Humnoke, who could collect the $ 1.16 when the trunk was called for, while there was no agent at Geridge who could make the collection.

Mr. Alverson met this train the next morning on its return trip, and paid Conductor Williamson the $ 1.16. Williamson stated to Alverson at the time that he had wired the first conductor to ascertain if a mistake had been made, and that, if a mistake had been made, he would refund the money. After paying these fares Alverson hired an automobile, for which he paid $ 1.75, and drove over to Humnoke for the trunk. In passing through Humnoke Conductor Williamson told the station agent at that place to release the trunk, and this was done, and Alverson carried it to his home.

As soon as Williamson saw the first conductor, he told him what had occurred, and the first conductor admitted that he had neglected to return the tickets to appellee and her companion. On his next trip through Geridge, Williamson looked around for Alverson, but he failed to see him. He did this on each successive trip through Geridge for several days. Williamson then told the railroad section foreman at Geridge what had happened, and requested the foreman to tell Alverson that the money would be returned to him. This message was delivered by the foreman, but Alverson stated that he had not made the mistake, and that he would not meet the train. About a week afterwards Williamson himself saw Alverson at Geridge and tendered him the $ 1.16. Alverson declined to accept the money, and stated to Williamson that the matter had been placed in the hands of his attorney.

Williamson testified that he had no intention of collecting any excess fare from appellee and her companion, and that he demanded the fare because they had no tickets. He admitted that his attention was called to the conductor's train check in the window curtain, and that it may have had the letter "G" on it, but that the letter "G" did not necessarily stand for Geridge. He testified that, when he explained to Alverson what he proposed to do about the trunk, assent was given. This was denied by Alverson, who testified that he had no alternative, and could only do what the conductor required.

Appellee prayed for judgment for the statutory penalty for an overcharge by a carrier on account of the 58-cent overcharge of fare, and in a second count she prayed for the penalty on account of the $ 1.75 she was required to pay for delivery of the trunk to the destination to which it had been checked. Young Gentry...