Hobbs v. Illinois Central Railroad

182 Iowa 316
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 21, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 182 Iowa 316 (Hobbs v. Illinois Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hobbs v. Illinois Central Railroad, 182 Iowa 316 (iowa 1917).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

— I. The petition, which was originally in a single count, charged the defendant railway company and two of its alleged servants, who are also made defendants, with having falsely arrested the plaintiff for disorderly conduct; that they thereafter, maliciously and without probable cause, caused an information to be filed before a police judge in the city of Fort Dodge, and thereafter again caused plaintiff’s arrest; that the case was prosecuted to judgment before the police judge, resulting in his finding the plaintiff guilty; that plaintiff thereupon prosecuted an [319]*319appeal to the district court of Webster County, where the action was terminated by the dismissal of the case and the plaintiff’s discharge; that the entire prosecution and the arrest were without probable cause, and were wanton and malicious. Defendants filed a general denial, but in effect admitted the arrest and the prosecution; pleaded that they had reasonable cause therefor; that the plaintiff and others were in fact guilty, and were convicted of the offense charged before the police judge aforesaid; and' that he (plaintiff) has never been legally acquitted of the charge. They also pleaded that the prosecution was never legally ended or concluded. At the conclusion of the introduction of the testimony on the part of the plaintiff, defendant moved the court for a directed verdict; and, while the motion was pending, plaintiff amended his petition by separating the same into counts, in the first of which he charged a false arrest, on the 17th day of-December, by the defendant and its agents, and in the second, he charged them with having maliciously prosecuted the plaintiff before the police judge, and having thereafter falsely arrested plaintiff and continued his prosecution wantonly, maliciously, and without probable cause, down until he was discharged upon the appeal, as stated in the original petition. Defendants objected to the filing of this amendment because it came too late, and for other grounds; but these objections were overruled, and defendants then demurred, because the amendment introduced new causes of action, and that these were barred by the statute of limitations. This demurrer was also overruled, and exception taken. It was then agreed that defendants’ original answer should apply to the amended petition, and the cause proceeded.

1. Pleading : amendments: divisions into counts. [320]*3202. Limitation op acttons : computation of period: amendments pleading new cause of action, etc. [319]*319Such, in brief, were the issues on which the case was tried; and down to this point, 110 question arises, save the correctness of the rulings of the trial court on objections [320]*320and demurrer to the amendment to the petition. These rulings may be considered together. The original petition, which was in a single count, contained two, if not three, causes of action: one for malicious prosecution, and one, if not two, actions for false arrest, one before the filing of the information, and the other after the information was filed; and the amended petition did no more, as we think, than to separate and divide two of these causes of action into counts, the first one charging false arrest before the information was filed, and the second, malicious prosecution and false arrest after the information was filed. Even were this not true, it was within the discretion of the trial court to permit the filing of the amendment in furtherance of justice, unless defendants were in some way prejudiced thereby. No such prejudice is shown. Defendant’s demurrer, based upon the ground that a new cause of action was introduced by the amendment, which cause was barred by the statute of limitations, is without merit. Gordon v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 129 Iowa 747; Frazee v. City of Cedar Rapids, 151 Iowa 251, 256; Russell v. Chicago, R. T. & P. R. Co., 160 Town 503; Chariton Nat. Bank v. Whicher, 163 Iowa 571. The original petition covered all the matters referred to in the amendment, in a general way, and the amendment was but an amplification thereof, the matters pleaded being germane to- the cause of action stated in the original petition.

II. The arrests and the prosecution grew out of a trouble arising between plaintiff and a number of his companions, and the railway company and its employees, over transportation by the company of the said parties as caretakers of live stock over its-line of road to Chicago. Plaintiff and other men, 11 in number, residents of Marcus and Cleghorn, in Cherokee County, shipped, over defehdant’s [321]*321line, some live stock from these respective towns to Chicago, and were given stock passes to accompany the stock. They were joined by other stock shippers on defendant’s line before the train reached Fort Dodge, and the party amounted to 24 or 25 men, aside from the train crew, when the train reached the latter station. They were crowded into a single caboose, or way car, and some of them had to stand up while riding on the train. The train arrived at Fort Dodge at about 5 o’clock in the morning of December 17, 1911, and the men immediately went to a lunch counter for breakfast. The men endeavored to secure a second caboose, or way car, from the defendant company, and went to its yardmaster for that purpose. They were then directed' to the train dispatcher, and he told them that they could not have another car. The stock train was then standing in the yard, and the men were advised as to the departure thereof; but the plaintiff and some 11 others neglected or refused to take it, because of the crowded condition of the way car. About this time, a passenger train came in on defendant’s line, destined to Chicago, and due to leave Fort Dodge at 6:25 A. M. The plaintiff and his companions, with the imnlied assent of the brakeman of this train, entered the forward car of the traiij, which was a combination baggage and passenger car. The conductor of the train was not present at this time, but when he appeared, he was informed that the men were on the train expecting to ride on their stock contracts. The conductor then went to where the men were, and, according to one of the witnesses, the following occurred:

• “We went in and sat there for a couple of minutes before the conductor came in; then he wanted to know if we were stockmen and if we had tickets. We told him we had no tickets, and he said we couldn’t ride in that train; and Mr. Hobbs spoke up and said we had transportation, and the conductor replied that that kind of transportation didn’t go on this train. He went to the rear end of the coach [322]*322and went out for a little while, then came back and asked us if we had gotten tickets, and we replied we hadn’t. He said if we didn’t get tickets, he would go and get officers to put us off. In a few minutes, he came back with the officers, and stopped opposite Mr. Williams, and asked if he was one of the stockmen. He told him he was; then he told Mr. Williams to get off. Mr. Williams then said if he was going to put us off, to start down at the head, and he pointed down to me. Then he came to where I was and asked me if I was one of the stockmen, and I told him I was, and he told me to get out. I didn’t move, and he took hold of me. As soon as he did that, I asked him to show me his authority as an officer, and he pulled back his coat and showed me his star. Then I got up and started out; so did Mr. Williams and most all the rest, and at this time Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
182 Iowa 316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hobbs-v-illinois-central-railroad-iowa-1917.