Billinger v. Clyde S. S. Co.

158 F. 511, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4961

This text of 158 F. 511 (Billinger v. Clyde S. S. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Billinger v. Clyde S. S. Co., 158 F. 511, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4961 (circtsdny 1908).

Opinion

RAY, District Judge.

The evidence in these cases, tried together with a separate verdict in each, was substantially undisputed that the defendant is a corporation engaged in running steamers carrying passengers between the state of Florida and the state of New York. It is a common carrier of passengers. That in the month of March,, 1903, it sold to each of the plaintiffs a ticket for a second-class passage from Jacksonville, Fla., to the city of New York, with the right and privilege to stop off at the port of Charleston, S. C., and go on to New York by some other steamer on that line at a later date. Each plaintiff availed himself of the stop-over privilege, and took [512]*512from the proper officer of the Comanche on which steamer they first took passage another voucher or ticket directed to the proper officers of the company directing and requesting them to give to the plaintiffs, respectively, passage from Charleston to the city of New York. In legal effect these tickets gave to these plaintiffs the right to be carried from Charleston to New York on any vessel of the defendant which carried second-class passengers within the time limited — which was April 30, 1903. This was not questioned on the trial. The court, referring to these substituted tickets, charged the jury “It,” referring to the ticket, “did not specify what steamer or vessel he was to come upon, and under these tickets he had a right — -the plaintiff had the right — to come on to New York on any vessel of the defendant which carried second-class passengers, whether it had second-class accommodations in point of fact or not, if it actually carried second-class passengers', and was not limited to certain specified individuals, then, .of course, he would have the right to come on any one of defendant’s vessels which was actually engaged in carrying second-class passengers.”. This was not excepted to.

Within the time limited the plaintiffs went to a vessel of the defendant at Charleston — the Arapahoe — which was running on this line from Florida to New York, and was about to leave Charleston for New York on a regular trip, and entered the vessel. The' claim of each of the plaintiffs is that as they entered the vessel they were met by the purser who stated to them, in substance, when they produced and showed their tickets, which they did, that they would have to go in .the steerage; that they did not carry any colored people only in the steerage on that vessel. One of the plaintiffs testified, “I said, ‘Is that so?’ I objected, and he went for the captain of the vessel, and he came up arid said, ‘You have got to go in the steerage. I do not carry any colored people only in the steerage.’ He'said, ‘Are you going to get off?’ He said, ‘Go in the steerage; that is all I can give you; if you do not want that get off.’ These are the words to me of the purser and .the captain. I remained on the steamer — me and my friend — until they sailed away. I did not get off.” By “his friend” this plaintiff referred to the other plaintiff. There was sufficient evidence in the case to justify the finding of the jury that this vessel, the Arapahoe, was then fitted for and was actually engaged in carrying second-class passengers on that voyage, and had second-class accommodations for such passengers and for the plaintiffs. In fact, one of the officers of the defendant then on the vessel testified that he was directed, subsequently to offer the plaintiffs such accommodations'outside'the steerage on surrender of their tickets, and that they refused them. ’ The plaintiffs claimed and gave evidence tending to show that having showed their tickets to the purser and captain, arid having declined to go in the steerage, that they were refused second-class accommodations or any accommodations outside ■ thé steerage, and were denied food, and were driven out upon the deck 'and' insulted and abused by the captain, and'that one of them was forced outside arid assaulted by the captain. All this was denied by the defendant, and the defendant’s claim was that the purser noticing the’ men there, and having been informed [513]*513that they had such tickets, told them that they could not have second-class accommodations on that vessel, and advised them or told them to get off, and that plaintiffs declined. The defendant says the plaintiffs did not exhibit or produce their tickets at any time. This witness on behalf of the defendant first stated, in substance, that the vessel started within a few seconds.

It was a rule and regulation of the company, and of course a reasonable one, that passengers, when called upon to produce their tickets and surrender them, as they were then given a meal ticket, the possession of which was evidence of their right to be there and receive accommodations, should do so. The court so charged the jury. The contention raised by the defendant on the trial, and now raised here, is that inasmuch as these plaintiffs were told, as their own testimony showed, that they could not have accommodations on that vessel as second-class passengers, for the reason they were colored men, and had time to get off, and were told this when they first entered the vessel, that they had no right to remain on board. The defendant says that, even if the defendant then and there violated its contract and refused to carry the plaintiffs elsewhere than in the steerage of that vessel on the sole ground that they were colored men, .the plaintiffs, by remaining on board and insisting on their rights to go on that vessel and receive second-class accommodations, in legal effect accepted the situation and assented to the conditions imposed. The defendant says it was then their duty to get off and sue for breach of the contract; that if they remained on board, as they did, the defendant had the right to treat them as wrongdoers, as stowaways, as interlopers, as having no rights there except as steerage passengers and to steerage accommodations. Also, as it is claimed they did not surrender their tickets when demanded at a later time, it was error for the court to charge in substance that they were not bound to do so if notified in advance that their tickets would not be honored, and that they would be carried in the steerage only, for the sole reason that they were colored men. These are the questions raised by the exceptions to the charge.

The court charged the jury:

“Now, then, gentlemen, I charge you as a matter of law, that if you find those to be the facts, If they showed their tickets, if the captain and the purser knew, or the purser knew, that they had those tickets, if he or they saw them, and if thereafter plaintiffs were told that they must go in, the steerage because they were colored, that they only carried colored people there; if that was the reason and the sole reason why defendant’s officers refused to give them the passage above the steerage, and they had second-class accommodations — why, then, plaintiffs had the right to hold on to those tickets; they had the right to keep them as an evidence of their rights. In short, if they were notified in advance that their tickets would not be honored, that they would not have accorded to them the rights which their tickets called for, why, then, they were not obliged to surrender into the hands of these officers of the defendant their evidence of that right — not obliged, under such circumstances, to deprive themselves of that evidence; they were under no obligations to acquiesce in such a demand.

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Bluebook (online)
158 F. 511, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/billinger-v-clyde-s-s-co-circtsdny-1908.