Airey v. Pullman Palace Car Co.

23 So. 512, 50 La. Ann. 648, 1898 La. LEXIS 531
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 18, 1898
DocketNo. 12,755
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 23 So. 512 (Airey v. Pullman Palace Car Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Airey v. Pullman Palace Car Co., 23 So. 512, 50 La. Ann. 648, 1898 La. LEXIS 531 (La. 1898).

Opinion

On the Merits.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Breaux, J.

Plaintiff sued the defendant for damages growing out of a contract of carriage with which (the plaintiff urged) the defendant failed to properly comply.

Plaintiff, in feeble health, in June, 1895, came to this city to' undergo a surgical operation. After her arrival here she was taken sick with malarial fever; the intended operation was postponed. Though in a weak condition she decided to return to her home in the parish of Natchitoches. Her attending physician considered her sufficiently restored to health to make the trip.

Plaintiff boarded a west-bound train at about 7 P. m. She had a mileage ticket which she, when called upon, presented to the conductor. She also had a berth ticket, which entitled her to a berth on one of the sleepers of the train. Plaintiff stated that she requested the conductor of the Texas & Pacific train to awaken her in time to alight from the train at Cypress Station, and that he promised that he would. This promise is not denied. The train arrived at Boyce (a station east of Cypress) at about 3:45 in the morning. [650]*650The conductor of the Texas & Pacific Railway and porter of the Pullman were relieved, being the end of their run, and another conductor and porter supplied their places. The new conductor inquired of the porter, servant of the Pullman, who had been on duty since 3 o’clock, whether they had any passengers for any way stations between Boyce and Shreveport.

He answered “No.” This new conductor stated that he had no other means of finding out the landing place of the passengers on the way. He could not himself go in the car and arouse the sleeping passengers. It would be very annoying tb them. Without notice to plaintiff the train passed Cypress. About twenty miles beyond that station plaintiff, who had arisen after the car had left Cypress, stated to the conductor that she wished to get off at Cypress. He stated in reply, that the train had already passed that station some distance. He requested her to get off at the next station, where there was a hotel, and he would commit her to trustworthy persons and see that she returned on the next train without any expense whatever to her. She declined the offer, and expressed the wish of going to Shreveport, where she had relatives, to which place she did go and remained about two weeks.'

During the time she was at Shreveport she was offered a return ticket by the defendant, which she declined to accept.

.Plaintiff alleged, and she stated as a witness, that her disappointment was very great when she learned that she had passed the station where she was to get off, to take the Natchitoches tap road on her way to her home, six'miles further; that it was quite a shock to her in her nervous and weak condition of health.

The Pullman Palace Car Company filed an exception of no cause of action. This exception was maintained on December 3,1896, and the suit against this company was dismissed.

The other defendant pleaded the general issue, and especially denied plaintiff’s charge of negligence.

On the seventh day of May, 1897, a judgment for ten dollars was entered in error and by oversight, against the Pullman Palace Car Company (although a judgment of dismissal had been entered in its favor some time previous).

On the sixteenth day of November, 1897, the judge of the District Court sought to correct the error by signing another judgment for the amount at which he had assessed the damages against [651]*651the Texas & Pacific Railway Company; the remaining defendant after the suit against the Pullman Palace Car Company had been dismissed, as just stated. Plaintiff prosecutes this appeal from both judgments — i. e., from the two judgments signed.

No appeal was taken from the first judgment dismissing the action against the Pullman Palace Car Company, on the ground óf no right of action, which had not been signed.

We, in the first place, took up for determination the case against the Pullman Palace Oar Company, the issues in^that case being separate and distinct from those in the case against the Texas & Pacific Railway Company.

We are led to infer that the Texas & Pacific Railway Company admitted that an error had been committed, without, however, as we take it, its conceding that the judgment signed to correct the clerk’s blunder was correct.

Counsel for plaintiff expressly stated in argument that he did not expect, and that he did not desire, a judgment against the Pullman Palace Oar Company.

In view of this statement, and of the facts showing error, patent of record, we can not do otherwise than pronounce null the judgment signed against the Pullman Palace Car Company.

This company is before us as an appellee. ' It did not choose to appeal; no other alternative is left to us save to apply the rule that a reversal carries with it the cost of appeal.

We pass to the ease against the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, made a co-defendant of the Pullman Palace Car Company.

By reason of the business relations between the Pullman «Palace Car Company and the Texas Railroad Company, each,- in our judgment, may be made to respond in damages. As relates to negligence such as is here charged, they are in pari delicto. As we take it, these companies were operating trains unitedly and in a measure, at least, in common. The principle applicable was settled in Williams vs. Pullman Palace Car Company, 40 An. 417, in which this court held: The Railway Company was responsible to a passenger for the laches of the Parlor Car Company. He, the injured passenger in the case, as in the case before us for determination, held a ticket of the Palace Car Company, and a passenger ticket of the railway company.

The evidence discloses in the case here, with reference to arousing passengers, that the conductor made proper inquiry, and was not [652]*652correctly notified by the porter. It is quite true that it is the business of the conductor to manage the train in his charge, according to regulations, which regulations do not, however, include the necessity of his personally arousing passengers in Pullman Palace Oars on arrival of the train at the place of their destination. This duty more particularly devolves upon the employees in charge of the sleepers. But this view of his service does not have the effect of lessening the railway company’s responsibility.

This court clearly approved, in the case cited supra, the principles set forth in several decisions in other jurisdictions, that the conductor and porter of the sleeper car company were in law, as relates to passengers, the railway’s servants and employees.

We have naught to do with the status of the Palace Car Company; whether it was or was not a common carrier. The plaintiff was traveling on a ticket evidencing a contract with the defendant. She could, in our opinion, hold the defendant railway company to the performance of the whole contract.

The plaintiff gave herself concern to notify those in charge as to where she was going.

Besides, the passenger check signed by the Pullman conductor was for a berth from New Orleans to Cypress. That was in itself proof of the passenger’s station to get off. This proof bound all concerned.

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Bluebook (online)
23 So. 512, 50 La. Ann. 648, 1898 La. LEXIS 531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/airey-v-pullman-palace-car-co-la-1898.