Calhoun v. Pullman Palace Car Co.

149 F. 546, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5034
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee
DecidedDecember 14, 1906
DocketNo. 3,860
StatusPublished

This text of 149 F. 546 (Calhoun v. Pullman Palace Car Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Calhoun v. Pullman Palace Car Co., 149 F. 546, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5034 (circtwdtn 1906).

Opinion

kJoCADD, District Judge.

This case is heard upon a demurrer to the declaration.

It is alleged as follows:

“That on the 1st day .of September last the plaintiff was the holder of a ticket which entitled him to be carried over the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York to Washington City, and thence, over connecting lines, to Chattanooga, Tenn., which said ticket he exhibited to the agent of the defendant in Providence, R. I., who informed him that by purchasing a local ticket from Providence to Jersey City he could sell him and furnish linn a lower berth in the Pullman car from Providence to Washington,- where he could get the railroad authorities to fix his railroad ticket, so that he could go forward on his journey, returning, to Chattanooga. The aforesaid agent of the defendant examined the aforesaid railroad ticket, and informed him that it was not necessary for him to go to New York for the purpose of having his ticket countersigned; that he could have that done in Washington, and thereupon, and upon the assurance given him by the agent of the defendant, the plaintiff purchased a local ticket which entitled him to enter upon the train of the connecting railroad company, and to enter a sleeping car thereto attached, and to be transported therein over the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Jersey City to Washington, and having the assurance, as aforesaid, that with the aforesaid railroad ticket and the sleeping car ticket, and upon the undertaking of the defendant for the compensation it received for the said sleeping car berth, to furnish the plaintiff the accommodations of the sleeping car from Providence, R. I., to Washington City, and upon the assurance made [547]*547to him by the agent oí the aforesaid defendant, and the warranty that upon his aforesaid railroad tickets and the sleeping ear ticket, that he would have and enjoy the right to occupy the berth he purchased from Providence, R. I., to Washington City, he entered into the aforesaid contract with the defendant company, became a passenger upon the car, occupied the berth assigned to him, and was carried without molestation until the train reached Trenton, X, J., when he was awakened by the porter of the sleeping car and informed that the train conductor desired to see him; that the train conductor informed him that notwithstanding the representation and warranty made to him by liie agent of the defendant company he would not be carried as a passenger, because his ticket had not been countersigned at New York, and that unless lie paid him the local fare lie would be ejected from the car; that the plaintiff thereupon paid to the conductor the local fare to Philadelphia, it being the nearest station at- which the train stopped, and then, notwithstanding the assurance and warranty so made by the defendant company as aforesaid, lie was ejected by the conductor from said car, and suffered the humiliation of a public ejection, was necessitated to go back to New York to have his ticket countersigned, and was delayed upon his trip, subjected to indignities and expense to his great damage $10,000, for which he sues, and demands a trial by jury.”

The defendant in his demurrer thereto sets out eight separate grounds. All of them may be considered together, since, when they are boiled down, it is seen that the defense is that there is no ground of action alleged in the declaration which entitles plaintiff to recover against the defendant. There is but one count in the declaration, and a careful reading thereof discloses that it is inconsistent in its averments. The plaintiff first alleges that on the 1st day of last September he was the holder of a ticket which entitled him to transportation over the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York City to Washington City, and then, over connecting lines, to Chattanooga, Tenn. If this is true/and he was forced to leave the Pennsylvania Railway-train, as is alleged, by a conductor of that company in charge of one of its trains, then his right of action, if he has any, would be against that railroad company, and not against the defendant, Pullman Car Company, against which nothing is alleged in so far as the complaint of actual ejection is concerned.

However, plaintiff avers, in connection with the above statement, that he exhibited his ticket to the agent of the defendant company in Providence, R. I., who informed him that, if plaintiff would purchase a local railroad ticket from that point to Jersey City, he, the agent of the defendant, could sell to plaintiff a sleeping car ticket from there to Washington, and that it was not necessary for him to go to New York to get his said railroad ticket countersigned, but that he could get it fixed at Washington and proceed on his journey to Chattanooga. If plaintiff’s first averment is true — that is, that he had a railroad ticket over the Pennsylvania Railroad which entitled him to go over that road from New York to Washington- — then it was not necessary to go to New York to have it countersigned. Clearly, if this ticket needed to be countersigned before it was good, then, until that was done, it did not entitle plaintiff to ride over the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York to Washington. And nothing that the agent of defendant said could validate the railroad ticket.

Plaintiff proceeds, and alleges that, relying on this information given him by the agent of the defendant, he purchased a local railroad ticket [548]*548to Jersey City, to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad, over which h¿ avers he held a ticket to Washington, and purchased a sleeping car ticket from defendant’s agent to Washington, and went upon the train and into his berth, relying confidently on the assurance of this defendant that it was not necessary to go to New York to have his railroad ticket countersigned, and that the sleeping car ticket which he held would afford him the comfort of traveling in that sleeping car to Washington. After the sleeping car had been hooked onto the train of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was near Trenton, N. J., he was informed by the conductor of the train that he could not carry him over that road on that ticket unless it had been countersigned in New York, and that plaintiff must pay his fare, or get off. There is no allegation that the sleeping car on which he was to be carried from Providence to Washington, under the ticket he held for a berth therein, did not go at the time, and on the route, for which plaintiff’s railroad ticket called. There is no allegation against the defendant, except that its agent informed plaintiff that it was not necessary for him to go to New York* to have a railroad ticket countersigned which plaintiff held, and which he avers entitled him to transportation over the Pennsylvania Railroad.

There is no averment that the information given plaintiff by defendant’s agent, and upon which he alleges he so confidently relied, was incorrect. ■ Indeed, there is no allegation that it was at all necessary that said railroad ticket should have been countersigned at New York or elsewhere. The only allegation is that, notwithstanding the representation made to plaintiff by defendant’s agent, the train conductor informed him that he could not be carried as a passenger on that train , because his ticket had not been countersigned at New York.

' Counsel for plaintiff insists that the facts stated in the declaration make the defendant company an insurer or warrantor of the validity of the ticket which plaintiff had over the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York to Washington. To sustain this position, counsel relies upon the case of Pullman Palace Car Company v. King, 99 Fed. 380, 39 C. C. A. 573.

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Related

Duval v. Pullman Palace-Car Co.
62 F. 265 (Fifth Circuit, 1894)
Pullman's Palace-Car Co. v. King
99 F. 380 (Second Circuit, 1900)
Lemon v. Pullman Palace Car Co.
52 F. 262 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern Mississippi, 1887)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
149 F. 546, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/calhoun-v-pullman-palace-car-co-circtwdtn-1906.