Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company v. Fitzgerald

• Decision Date: 06 December 1909
• Citation: 96 Miss. 197,50 So. 631
• Parties: YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. FRANCES FITZGERALD
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

50 So. 631

96 Miss. 197

YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. FRANCES FITZGERALD

Supreme Court of Mississippi

December 6, 1909

October 1909

FROM the circuit court of Issaquena county, HON. JOHN N. BUSH Judge.

Mrs Fitzgerald, appellee, was plaintiff in the court below; the railroad company, appellant, was defendant there. From a judgment in plaintiff's favor the defendant appealed to the supreme court.

The appellee, Mrs. Fitzgerald, in company with her sister, being desirous of going from Rosedale, Mississippi, to New Orleans Louisiana, was persuaded by the railroad company's ticket agent at Rosedale to purchase a "family mileage book" which had recently been adopted by the railroad company as permissible for use by passengers in lieu of the regular tickets, the agent assuring appellee that such mileage book would entitle both herself and sister to travel thereon. Appellee accordingly purchased a one-thousand mile mileage book for $ 25, and, after having her baggage checked boarded appellant's south-bound passenger train for New Orleans, in company with her sister. The first two conductors on the train accepted her mileage, the second of the two tearing out sufficient mileage from the book to carry the two passengers to their destination, as they were occupants of a sleeper and it was nighttime. Later, after appellee and her sister had retired for the night in the sleeper, a third conductor, at about three o'clock in the morning, awakened appellee, telling her that her mileage book was not good for transportation beyond the Mississippi state line, and that she would have to pay fare from the Mississippi line to New Orleans. Appellee testified that the conductor was rude and insulting in demeanor toward her, that he did not explain the situation fully, but demanded money; that, when she asked for explanation, he stated in reply, "You will have to pay me money, or get off the train;" and, that when she stated that she would pay him no further fare he told her: "You needn't try to bluff me, like you have done the other conductor. I am an old man on the line, and know my business. Your mileage is all wrong. You will have to pay me money, or get off of the train." Appellee refused to make any payment as demanded by the conductor, but her sister offered to pay the conductor in the morning before they should leave the train, to which the conductor finally agreed. On arriving in New Orleans in the morning, the two ladies went with the conductor to the company's superintendent where the rules of the company with regard to the use of such mileage transportation were explained to them, but the superintendent, who had received appellee's mileage book from the conductor, declined to return it and required her to take in exchange another form of mileage book for which she was compelled to pay an additional sum of five dollars. Appellee testified further that, before she and her sister left the train, the conductor approached them and told her that if she had been a man instead of a lady he would have "handled her" in a different manner from what he had done. The conductor, testifying in behalf of the appellant company, denied that he was in any way insulting or threatening in his behavior, and affirmed that he simply, in conformity with his duty as conductor, awakened Mrs. Fitzgerald quietly, and told her that the mileage book was not good for transportation beyond the Mississippi state line, and that she would have to pay the fare, two dollars and fifty cents, from the state line to New Orleans. The case was submitted to the jury under instructions permitting the finding of punitive as well as actual damages. The verdict returned in appellee's favor was for $ 2,500.

Affirmed on remittitur.

Mayes & Longstreet, for appellant.

Construing this case most favorably for appellee, and accepting her version of the occurrence on the Pullman sleeper, and accepting her statement of the words used by the conductor, there was no cause of action for recovery of punitive damages against appellant.

It may be that appellant's agent at Rosedale made a mistake in informing Mrs. Fitzgerald that the mileage book was better for use than an ordinary ticket, yet the mistake of this ticket agent is not the ground of complaint charged in the declaration. It is the action of the conductor who, in the early morning, awakened Mrs. Fitzgerald, telling her that such mileage book was not valid beyond the Mississippi state line, and that she would have to pay fare from that point, to New Orleans. Now, the conductor was correct in that he was not authorized to...