Cluck v. Houston & Texas Central Railroad

101 S.W. 1021, 46 Tex. Civ. App. 112, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 32
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 13, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 101 S.W. 1021 (Cluck v. Houston & Texas Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cluck v. Houston & Texas Central Railroad, 101 S.W. 1021, 46 Tex. Civ. App. 112, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 32 (Tex. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

FISHER, Chief Justice.

This is a suit by the appellant against the Railway Company to recover damages for the alleged wrongful *113 and negligent conduct of one of appellee’s conductors on one of its passenger trains, in requiring the appellant and his wife to disembark from the train at Butledge, a station on appellee’s line of road. Upon trial below, a verdict and judgment were in favor of the Bailway Company.

The theory of the case as presented by the appellant is that he and his wife were rightfully upon the train as passengers, and were entitled to be transported from Cedar Park, the station where they boarded the train, to Houston, Texas, under an advertised, quoted and listed rate made by appellee of $2.75 each, for round trip tickets between the two places; that there were no. tickets on sale at Cedar Park, but that the appellant and his wife, upon the arrival of the passenger train, boarded the same, and tendered to the conductor $2.75 each, as payment for passage in accordance with the advertised rate. The conductor refused to accept sucli tender and informed the appellants that they must procure a ticket at the next station, which was Butledge, about four miles distant from Cedar Park; and it is contended that he had authority to issue them a -ticket or to- accept the amount tendered as payment for transportation to Houston. When the train reached Butledge they were, over their protest, required to leave the same by the conductor.

The only defense raised by appellee’s answer which we deem it necessary to notice is the contention that the appellant and his wife did not board the train in good faith intending to become passengers, but their purpose was to produce a situation that would result in litigation, and that the rate- relied upon by appellant as applying to Cedar Park was made by one of appellee’s agents by and through mistake, which mistake, it is alleged was known to the appellant; that Cedar Park was merely a flag station, and that the appellee had no agent at that point, nor were there any tickets on sale there.

There is evidence in the record which tends to establish the following facts: That Cedar Park was at one time a regular ticket office on appellee’s road, but that for several months before the 13th of August, 1904, the day that appellant and his wife boarded the train at that place, it had been and was a flag station, and there was no ticket office or -agent at that place, and no tickets were sold there, but parties who boarded the appellee’s trains- at that place were required to pay their fare in money to the conductor at the rate of three cents a mile. These facts were known to Cluck ait said- time; and it appears that in boarding the- train and making the tender to the conductor, his wife was present and he acted as her agent. Sometime prior to the 13th of August, the appellee issued a circular advertising an excursion to Houston and Galveston from points on the line of appellee’s road, among which was mentioned Cedar Park, the rate from that point being stated in the advertisement at $2.75. Among other matters stated in the heading of the advertisement is a statement to the effect that “roundtrip tickets will be sold for trains arriving at Houston and Galveston on the evening of August 13 and the morning of August 14.” In stating Cedar Park as one of the places where round-trip tickets would be sold, the clerk or agent of the appellee in making up *114 the circular advertisement, through inadvertence and mistake, included that place. And in this connection we desire to say that there is evidence of some facts in the record which would authorize the conclusion that the appellant knew that the statement made in the circular that tickets would be on sale at Cedar Park on that day, was a mistake. We do not mean to say that it is shown by the evidence that the appellant had actual notice of this fact, but there is evidence of circumstances sufficient to justify the jury in drawing the inference that he must have known that a mistake was made in the circular in stating that tickets would be on sale at that place. And there is evidence to the effect that before the appellant and his wife boarded the train he saw one of these circulars and made the statement, substantially to the effect, that he was going to get on the train and tender the money at the .advertised rates, and dare them to' put him off, or if they put him off, he would make them “pop.” On the arrival of the train at Cedar Park, the appellant with his wife boarded the same without procuring a ticket, and when called - upon by the conductor for fare, he tendered as payment for both the sum of $5.50 for roundtrip fare to Houston. The conductor informed him that his run terminated at Austin, and that he was not authorized to receive that sum as fare to Houston, and that he was not authorized to sell tickets; that the appellant would be required to pay three cents a mile as fare from Cedar Park to Rutledge, a station which appears from the evidence to be about four miles south of Cedar Park; that at the latter place the appellant could purchase the roundtrip tickets to Houston. The train stopped at Rutledge a sufficient length of time to permit tickets to be purchased, but the appellant declined to pay the fare between Cedar Park and Rutledge, and did not buy tickets from the latter point, as he was requested to do. Thereupon, he and his wife were required to leave the train.

There are. some circumstances developed by the evidence which justified the trial court in submitting the issue to. the jury whether the appellant boarded the train with the bona fide purpose of becoming a passenger from Cedar Park to Houston, and whether or not his object may have been simply to bring about a situation that would require his expulsion from the train. The court also correctly submitted the question of mistake, as pleaded by appellee. Subdivision 2 of the charge presents in a way as favorably as appellant was entitled to his theory of the case.

It is contended by the appellant that the court erred in not sustaining demurrers to appellee’s answer pleading a mistake in fixing rates from Cedar Park. The basis for this contention is that it does not appear that the mistake was mutual; and in this connection it is also insisted that the court erred in submitting as an issue to the jury the question of mistake. The issue of mistake, as submitted by the charge, was in connection with the question whether the appellant had notice that an error or mistake had been committed in quoting tickets and fixing rates in the advertisement from Cedar Park. The defense insisted upon is not governed by the rule that the mistake must be mutual before relief will be afforded, but it is an instance in which an error or mistake has been committed of which another, with notice, seeks *115 to take advantage. This is illustrated in the cases of International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Hassell, 62 Texas, 256; St Louis S. W. Ry. Co. v. Campbell, 69 S. W., 451; and St. Louis S. W. Ry. Co. v. Wallace, 74 S. W., 581. In these cases the passengers had procured tickets from agents authorized to sell to points on the line where the train they boarded did not stop.

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Related

International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Parke
169 S.W. 397 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Cook v. Beaumont, S. L. & W. Ry. Co.
160 S.W. 123 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1913)

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Bluebook (online)
101 S.W. 1021, 46 Tex. Civ. App. 112, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cluck-v-houston-texas-central-railroad-texapp-1907.