Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Moran

117 Ill. App. 42, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 179
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 23, 1904
DocketGen. No. 4,354
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 117 Ill. App. 42 (Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Moran) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Moran, 117 Ill. App. 42, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 179 (Ill. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Farmer

delivered the opinion of the court.

Michael F. Moran, a boy fourteen years and three months old, was engaged in peddling newspapers in the city of Joliet, mornings and evenings, before and after school. He was accustomed to go to the depot every morning to sell papers to passengers on a passenger train of appellant which arrived at Joliet at 5:20 from the west. Other boys were engaged in the same business and they would appoint certain coaches to each boy. They were in the habit of getting on the train when it stopped, to sell their papers. On the morning of January 1, 1902, Michael F. Moran, as was his custom, was at the depot of appellant on the arrival of the 5:20 east-bound train for the purpose of selling papers to passengers thereon. While so engaged and while the train' was standing still, he went upon the steps of the chair car. It was a vestibuled car. and the door, which was at the top of the steps, was closed. A passenger came out, opened the door and asked for a paper. Moran produced the paper and says that a train employee, whom he called a porter but who proved to be a brakeman, grabbed the paper out of his hand and hallooed “ two for a nickel;” that he then had to get another paper out of his sack and by the time he did so the train was in motion and going so fast that he was afraid to jump off, and he sat down on the second step of the coach. He says he knew the train would stop at the E. J. & E. crossing, and intended to stay on till it stopped, but that the train emplojme who was dressed in a uniform, opened the vestibule door and told him to get off; that at first he didn’t think he meant it and made no movement to obey, and that the man then turned quickly toward him and while within three or four feet of appellee told him in an angry tone to get off quick. He says the words and manner of the brakeman so frightened him that he jumped. It was so dark he could not see where he was going to alight and he fell so that the wheels of the car passed over one foot and so cut and mashed it that the greater portion of it had to be amputated. He brought suit by his next friend against the company for damages, and recovered a verdict and judgment for $4,000, from which the defendant appealed.

The first question necessary to be considered in order to arrive at a determination of the rights of the parties is as to the capacity'in which appellee was on appellant’s train, whether as a passenger or trespasser. There is no direct averment in the declaration that he was a passenger. Some of the counts charge generally that he was lawfully on the train; others that according to a custom, and with the knowledge and consent of appellant, he was on the train for the purpose of selling passengers thereon newspapers. It is contended by counsel for appellee, first, that he was a passenger; second, that even if he were a trespasser, under the facts appellant is liable. Both contentions are denied by appellant.

“ A passenger, in the legal sense of the term, is one who travels in some public conveyance by virtue of a contract, express or implied, with the carrier as to the payment of fare or that which is accepted as an equivalent therefor. The relation of carrier and passenger is dependent upon the existence of a contract of carriage between the carrier and the passenger, made by themselves of by their respective agents.” 5 Am. & Eng. Ency. of L., 486.

“ The relation of carrier and passenger begins when one puts himself in the care of the carrier, or directly within its control, with a bona fide intention of becoming a passenger, and is accepted as such by the carrier.” Ibid. 488.

Our Supreme Court held in I. C. R. R. Co. v. O’Keefe, 168 Ill. 115, that the relation of carrier and passenger is a contract relation that both parties must enter into to be bound by, and said: “The passenger may do this by putting himself into the care of the railroad company to be transported, and the company does it by expressly or impliedly receiving him and accepting him as a passenger. The acceptance of the passenger need not be direct or expressed, but there must be something from which it may be fairly implied. One does not become a passenger until he has put himself in charge of the carrier and has been expressly or impliedly received as such by the carrier.” In Spannagle v. C. & A. R. R. Co., 31 Ill. App. 460, it was said: Mo express contract being shown,' before a duty rested upon the defendant the plaintiff must in some manner indicate his purpose of becoming such passenger, and place himself in charge of the carrier.” See also O’Donnell v. C. & N. W. Ry. Co., 106 Ill. App. 287.

Under these definitions and rules we think there was wanting the necessary and essential elements to constitute appellee a passenger of appellant. Appellee testified that he had more than a dollar in his pocket and that when he discovered the train was going so fast as to make it dangerous for him to leave it while in motion, he intended to stay on until it stopped, and that he knew it would stop at the E. J. & E. crossing for the signal. Whatever intention he may have had in his mind, it is not pretended that it was communicated to appellant’s servant, or that he did anything more than merely to sit down on the steps of the car to wait till it stopped at the E. J. & E. crossing, to indicate that he had any purpose or desire of becoming a passenger. When he went upon the train it was not for that purpose, and there is no evidence tending to show that he subsequently did or said anything that would bring him within the rules as to what is necessary to constitute a passenger. The mere fact that he had money in his pocket, could not, without his tendering or offering to pay his fare, alter his relation. Although he swears he had more than a dollar in his pocket, he does' not say that he intended to pay railroad fare, but intended to get off when the train stopped at the crossing mentioned; but even if he had | in his mind the intention to pay railroad fare, we think1 under the facts this would be immaterial, as there was no contract, express or implied, between him and the carrier: Gardner v. New Haven, etc., R. R. Co., 51 Conn. 143. If, as is claimed by appellee, every person on a passenger train is presumed to be a passenger until the contrary appears, the evidence in this case establishes the contrary. We can reach no other conclusion than that appellee was a trespasser. It is argued by counsel that appellee had been in the habit, with the knowledge and consent of appellant, of going upon its trains to furnish its passengers with newspapers, and that under the rule in I. C. R. R. Co. v. Hopkins, 200 Ill. 122, appellant owed him the duty of using at least ordinary care to avoid injuring him. There is, we think, a very wide distinction between that case and this. In the Hopkins case the injury occurred by the plaintiff stumbling over a skid on defendant’s platform over which she was passing to serve the postal clerks on the train with meals, as she had been in the habit of doing with the knowledge and approbation of the railroad company for several years. In this case appellee may have been in the habit of getting upon appellant’s train to serve its passengers with newspapers with the knowledge and consent of appellant, but even under these conditions it was his duty to depart from the train before or when it started to leave the station. There is no evidence that anything in the custom or practices of appellee in selling newspapers upon appellant’s train authorized or justified him in remaining on the cars or steps until the train should reach the E. J.

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Related

Cleary v. Illinois Central Railroad
226 Ill. App. 350 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1922)
Dignan v. Anderson
152 Ill. App. 522 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1910)
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. v. Moran
129 Ill. App. 38 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1906)

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Bluebook (online)
117 Ill. App. 42, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-rock-island-pacific-railroad-v-moran-illappct-1904.