Jackson v. Pennsylvania Railroad

77 A. 905, 228 Pa. 566, 1910 Pa. LEXIS 528
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 1, 1910
DocketAppeal, No. 397
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 77 A. 905 (Jackson v. Pennsylvania Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 77 A. 905, 228 Pa. 566, 1910 Pa. LEXIS 528 (Pa. 1910).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Potter,

The plaintiff brought this action against the defendant company to recover damages under the provisions of the Act of June 4, 1883, P. L. 72, for undue .discrimination in refusing to furnish to him, his fair proportion of cars for shipping coal, from his coal mine in Decatur township, Clearfield county, during the years 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1905. The case was submitted, upon the facts, to the jury and resulted in a verdict for $705.87, single damages, or $2,117.61, treble damages; and from the judgment entered thereon defendant has appealed. The assignments of error are all to answers to points submitted, as requests for charge to the jury. The first specification alleges error in affirming the fifth point presented by plaintiff which was as follows:

“5. That the measure of plaintiff’s damages is the difference between the cost of mining and delivering the coal on railroad cars, adding thereto the royalty paid, and the fair average selling price prevailing in the region where his mine was situated, during the period extending from March 26, 1902, and August 4, 1905, both inclusive, for all coal which the jury find from the evidence the plaintiff could have been reasonably able to mine and sell, except for the refusal of the defendant company to furnish his due proportion of all the cars available.”

[570]*570Counsel for appellant in their argument do not criticise the measure of damages here suggested, except in so far as it includes in the average selling price, a period of abnormally high prices, during which time defendant claims that plaintiff got all the cars to which he was entitled. This was, however, a disputed question of fact. If the testimony of plaintiff is true, he did not at any time get his fair share of cars. We think the trial judge was perhaps not quite consistent in broadly affirming this point, and that in order to have kept it in line with his general charge, he should have told the jury that if they found that during the period of high prices the plaintiff had received his fair proportion of cars, such period should be excluded in estimating the faff average selling price. But practically no harm resulted,, for the small amount of the verdict rendered by the jury as single damages, shows that they adopted the recommendation of the trial judge in his general charge, of which appellant cannot complain. The inconsistency shown by the court in unqualifiedly affirming this point, did not therefore result in any injury to defendant, and the mistake did not amount to reversible error. If as a fact the plaintiff was unduly discriminated against, he was entitled to be made whole for the damage he suffered thereby. No precise mathematical rule could be laid down in such a case for the guidance of the jury. Out of the mass of facts laid before them, they had to gather the value of the right, of which, if they credited the testimony of the plaintiff, he had been deprived. The trial judge instructed the jury that all that plaintiff could expect from the railroad company was his fair pro rata share of the coal cars distributed to the region, according to his output, as rated. There was a dispute of fact as to the rating of the mine. Plaintiff claimed it.was five cars per day; that he was told so by the train master, and that he acted upon that basis. This was denied by the train master. There was also a dispute upon the point upon which the trial judge really made the case turn, which was, as [571]*571to whether or not plaintiff ordered cars upon every working day as he claimed; and there was also a clash of testimony as to the number of cars actually delivered to him. In endeavoring to aid the jury in solving the intricate problems of fact involved, the trial judge prepared a table based upon the testimony of defendant’s witness, Mr. Freeman, the train master, in which he accepted as correct, defendant’s theory of the proper ratio of distribution of cars, and he directed the jury to use it in arriving at the proportionate number of cars to which plaintiff was entitled during the months covered by the claim. He said to the jury that if they were satisfied from the testimony of defendant, that no cars were ordered by plaintiff for 338 days, and that his mine rating was actually only one, two and four cars per day, instead of five cars per day, as plaintiff claimed, then the verdict should be for the defendant. Then the court narrowed the issue in another way, by telling the jury that the serious question in the case was whether plaintiff ordered cars every day, as he alleged, or whether he sent in no orders for cars upon a large number of days, as was alleged by defendant. Upon the determination of that question of fact, the trial judge, in his charge to the jury, made the case turn.

The court further instructed the jury, that if they found that fact to be as contended for by the plaintiff, “he would be entitled to recover in some amount, and you can figure that actual amount on the basis of about 3,500 tons, and at such a rate of gain or profit to him as you may find the testimony on the subject of prices warranted, remembering, however, that this testimony pretty clearly shows that he got his quota of distribution during the high priced period, and your verdict should not be based on those high prices or on any extravagant profits.” In putting the matter this way, the court practically gave to the jury in binding form, his own estimate of the tonnage; but of this instruction the defendant surely has no reason to complain. The verdict shows that the jury did [572]*572accept this suggestion of 3,500 tons, about as it was given to them by the court, and that they awarded to the plaintiff a profit of about twenty cents a ton thereon, the verdict being $705.87, so that evidently the jury in using this estimate must have excluded from their verdict, all idea of the high rate of profit which, according to the testimony, might have been derived by the plaintiff during the high priced period. We think the amount of the verdict shows conclusively that the jury awarded damages only on the basis of a deficiency of cars during the low priced period.

In the fourth assignment of error counsel for appellant complain of the refusal of defendant’s third point, which requested binding instructions in its favor, on the ground that the uncontradicted evidence in the case showed that plaintiff, between June 1, 1902, and June 1, 1903, when the high prices for coal prevailed, received more than his pro rata share of cars, and that the profits made by the use of these surplus cars should be credited on the loss sustained by reason of the deficiency in cars furnished plaintiff after June 1, 1903. This point was properly refused by the court, for the reason that it was not based upon evidence which was uncontradicted. It was apparently based upon the testimony of defendant’s train mas- ' ter that between May 30, 1903, and January 5, 1905, plaintiff’s rating was two cars per day, and after the latter date, it was four cars per day. In opposition to this, plaintiff testifies that his mine was rated at five cars per day, and that he continually gave orders for cars upon that rating, and made up his claim on that basis. The trial judge did not, however, accept plaintiff’s contention in this respect, as a basis for the portion of his charge dealing with that feature of the case, but made up a calculation of his own, which he submitted to the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
77 A. 905, 228 Pa. 566, 1910 Pa. LEXIS 528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-pennsylvania-railroad-pa-1910.