Jackson v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.

104 N.E.2d 462, 61 Ohio Law. Abs. 223, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 438
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 15, 1951
DocketNo. 4411
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 104 N.E.2d 462 (Jackson v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co., 104 N.E.2d 462, 61 Ohio Law. Abs. 223, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 438 (Ohio Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

OPINION

By HORNBECK, PJ.

This is an appeal on questions of law from a judgment of the Common Pleas Court in favor of the plaintiff for $1875.00 with costs. The action for wrongful death of plaintiff’s decedent was originally instituted against the defendant railway company and H. L. Young. Upon motion of the defendant, the plaintiff was required to elect, and elected to proceed against the defendant railway company.

The claim of the plaintiff was that on April 9, 1946, H. L. Young, an employee of the defendant corporation, acting within the scope of his employment, intentionally, maliciously and unlawful assaulted and shot plaintiff’s decedent resulting in his death. The answer of the defendant, with the exception of the admissions of the qualification of plaintiff’s administratrix, the corporate capacity of the defendant and that H. L. Young was employed by it as a railway detective, was a general denial.

The facts necessary to an appreciation of our question are that on the night of April 9, 1946, a passenger train of defendant company stopped at its “station in Fostoria, Ohio. While the train was standing, plaintiff’s decedent and a companion by the name of Baker knocked on the door of a Pullman car on the side opposite the station. They wore socks on their hands to serve, Baker says, the purpose of mittens. [225]*225A Pullman porter hearing the rap on the door opened it and the two young men boarded the ear. They requested a place to hide in the dining car which was refused and thereupon moved into a Pullman car, entered the ladies’ toilet and locked the door from within. Requests were made of the young men to come out of the closet which they refused. When the train was about to stop at Upper Sandusky, Jackson jumped out of a window of the toilet in the ladies’ room. Baker unlocked the toilet door, ran through the Pullman car and left the train. The next station after Upper Sandusky at which the train stopped was Marion, Ohio. Awaiting the arrival of the train at Marion were officers Young and McBee, special policemen commissioned by the Governor of Ohio and employees of the railway company. Riding on the train was a special agent of the company by the name of Goodman who was the superior officer of Young and McBee. He and the conductor left the train and conferred with officers Young and McBee and related to them the full details of the acts of Jackson and Baker on the train. After the conference, the officers immediately left Marion and drove toward Upper Sandusky. When nearing Upper Sandusky they saw two men who proved to be Jackson and Baker and after driving past them, turned around, trained their headlights on them and stopped. Young, upon alighting, had with him a flashlight and a revolver. He approached the men, ordered them to stop, put up their hands and stated further, “We are police officers.” Baker complied with the order. The testimony varies as to the actions of Jackson. Officer Young says that he continued to walk and that upon the second order did not stop but whirled in the road and put his hand back toward his hip pocket. Baker testifies that following the second order Jackson put up his left hand and almost immediately thereafter and before he could put up his right hand officer Young shot him and killed him. Neither young man was armed. Baker was taken to a jail in Upper Sandusky and the next day a charge of trespassing was placed against him. The evidence developed that both Jackson and Baker had Court records and at the time of the shooting Jackson was on parole from Mansfield. These facts were unknown to the officers and were ■ admitted only as related to damages. It appeared that the young men had been to Flint, Michigan, secured a job there and at the time of the occurrences on the train, were returning home for the purpose of securing clothing and money. When they left Columbus, Baker had no money and Jackson had but $15 which he borrowed, from his mother. There was evidence to the effect that Jackson was employed when he left for [226]*226Michigan and had regularly made contributions to his mother from his earnings, although the amount thereof was not fixed.

At the conclusion of plaintiff’s case, defendant moved for a directed verdict which was overruled. Thereupon the cause was submitted to the jury upon the case as made by the plaintiff. Verdict was returned for the plaintiff and judgment entered upon the verdict, after the overruling of a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Motion for new trial was also filed and overruled.

Four errors are assigned:

(1) Error on the part of the Court in overruling defendant’s motion for a directed verdict.

(2) Error in overruling defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

(3) Error by the Court in refusing to give defendant’s special charge that the acts of Jackson and Baker on the train of the defendant company constituted a felony and error by the Court in charging that any offense committed by Jackson and Baker on the train was a misdemeanor only and that special officer Young had no legal right to arrest them without a warrant.

(4) The verdict was not sustained by sufficient evidence, contrary to the evidence and the law.

The third assignment of error is so related to the other assignments that we first consider the two parts thereof, (a), (b). It is urged that the Court erred in refusing to charge that the acts of the young men in the ladies’ room of the Pullman car of the defendant company in the handling of the lock on the door of the room constituted a felony as provided in §12560 GC. Appellee contends that this section has no application whatever, for two reasons, the first of which is that its subject matter does not apply to a lock on the inside door of a passenger coach. The second is that if it applies to such a lock, the young men committed no offense in what they did respecting the lock. If the statute is applicable the following language is pertinent:

“Whoever, without proper authority * * * disarranges or destroys a lock ***ona*** car, * * * or other property of such railroad, * * * shall be * * * imprisoned in the county jail not less than thirty days or in the penitentiary not more than ten years.”

[227]*227[226]*226According to the testimony, one of the young men either held the lock from the inside so that it could not be unlocked or locked it from the inside. Did either act constitute a disarranging or destruction of the lock? We think not Certainly, it was not destroyed. Nor was it disarranged. There [227]*227is no evidence to the effect that at any time was the lock so handled that it would not perform the purpose for which it was made but for the application temporarily of outside force upon it. No part of the lock was broken nor its position changed. It was not thrown out of order. The lock at all times was in condition to function normally. What was done respecting it was not a disarrangement. The young men committed no felony and the trial judge was correct in refusing to so charge. It follows that the Court was also correct in charging that the act committed by the young men, trespassing, was a misdemeanor and that the special officers had no legal right to arrest them without a warrant.

The disposition which we make of the third assignment of error is largely determinative of the first and second assignments. Counsel both rely on the case of New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company v.

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Bluebook (online)
104 N.E.2d 462, 61 Ohio Law. Abs. 223, 1951 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 438, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-chesapeake-ohio-railway-co-ohioctapp-1951.