Ligon v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad

168 S.W. 647, 184 Mo. App. 187, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 548
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 20, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 168 S.W. 647 (Ligon v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ligon v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, 168 S.W. 647, 184 Mo. App. 187, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 548 (Mo. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, P. J.-

Plaintiff, intending to go from Leachville, Arkansas, to Gideon, Missouri, byway of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, purchased a ticket, for which he paid $1.20. The distance from Leachville to Kennett is twenty-five miles, and from Kennett to Gideon it is about twenty-three miles, a total of forty-eight miles, and the legal rate being two and a half cents a mile, $1.20' was the legal amount over that route. The ticket which plaintiff purchased at Leachville was a local, single trip ticket, good for one first-class passage from Leachville, Arkansas, to Gideon, Missouri, good only on the date of 'sale as stamped on the back, no stop-over being allowed. It was stamped on the back “September 8, 1911,” which was the date plaintiff purchased it at Leachville. When on the train and between Leachville and Kennett, plaintiff presented his ticket to the conductor, who punched it and handed it back to him. When the train reached Kennett plaintiff got off, went into the depot and found that the local train running direct from Kennett to Gideon, and which he had expected to catch, and by which his ticket was good, had left and that there would be no other until the following morning. So he again boarded the train upon which he had come from Leachville to Kennett, took his seat and when the conductor came along showed and tendered him his ticket. The conductor told him his ticket was not good on that train beyond Kennett, and that there was an additional fare by that train from Kennett'to Gideon and requested plaintiff to pay this additional fare. Plaintiff refusing to do this the conductor told him he would have to get off the train, and stopping the train a short distance north of Kennett, plaintiff got off, walked back to Kennett and had to remain there all night, catching his train that went direct to Gideon the next day. Defendant’s road branches off at Ken-nett ; one branch going north direct to Gideon, twenty-three miles, the other east to Hayti, north to Brooks [191]*191Junction, south to Gideon, the distance from Leach-ville to Gideon by the route which the train took upon which plaintiff attempted to make the trip being 136 miles. It is made up thus: from Leachville to Ken-nett, twenty-five miles; Kennett east to Hayti, eighteen miles; Hayti north to Brooks Junction, forty-seven miles; Brooks Junction south to Gideon, forty-six miles. The legal fare of two and half cents a mile is $3.40. The conductor demanded from plaintiff, if he continued on that train and went by the route the train upon which he was a passenger took, the difference between $1.20 and $3.40 — $2.20. By the legal rate of fare we refer to that in evidence as approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Plaintiff having been refused passage on thife train unless he paid the extra fare, brought his action against defendant, demanding judgment for $200 actual damages and $500 punitive or exemplary damages and costs.

The answer, after a general denial, avers that plaintiff had purchased a ticket entitling him to ride from Leachville to Gideon and the price paid was $1.20; that this was the legal interstate rate in force at the time between Leachville and Gideon by way of Kennett and Gibson, and not by way of the route mentioned in plaintiff’s petition and which plaintiff attempted to travel; that plaintiff, in violation of various sections of the Interstate Commerce Law, in force at the time, attempted to ride by way of a route not authorized by the tariff or under his ticket, and unlawfully and wrongfully refused to pay the legal rate in force and effect at the time between Leachville and Gideon by way of the route he attempted to travel; that by the act of Congress before referred to, it was unlawful for defendant to carry or agree to carry plaintiff between Leachville and Gideon by way of the route mentioned in plaintiff’s petition for the price and sum which plaintiff paid from Leachville to Gideon, and any [192]*192agreement or arrangement or understanding plaintiff may have had with any one to he transported by that way or route mentioned in his petition was in violation of the Interstate Commerce Law, was against public policy and absolutely void.

A general denial was filed by way of reply to this new matter.

The trial before the court and jury resulted in a verdict in favor of plaintiff, the jury in its verdict setting out that the jury assesses “his actual damages in the sum of fifty and no hundredths dollars, and we assess his exemplary, or punitive damages at the sum of--dollars.”

Interposing a motion for new trial and excepting to that being overruled, defendant has duly appealed.

At the close of plaintiff’s testimony defendant interposed a demurrer which was overruled.

In an instruction given at the instance of plaintiff, the court told the jury in substance, that if they found that on the day named defendant was operating the railroad between Leachville in Arkansas and Gideon in Missouri; that plaintiff on that date purchased a ticket from the agent of defendant at Leachville “entitling him to continuous passage to the station of Gideon in the State of Missouri;” that defendant had two routes of railroad from Leachville to Gideon; that the only way to make a continuous passage without stopping was going by way of Hayti and from there to Brooks Junction and from Brooks Junction to Gideon; that plaintiff, prior to the time complained of had made the trip over defendant’s railroad by the route above mentioned on a similar ticket to that purchased on that date; and if they believed and found from the evidence that on that date plaintiff was in possession of the ticket above mentioned and offered the ticket to the conductor of defendant’s train for his transportation over the route; and if they believed and found from the evidence that the conductor of the defendant [193]*193refused to accept the ticket from plaintiff and refused to carry plaintiff to his destination on the ticket hut stopped his train about a mile and a half east of Kennett and forced plaintiff to alight therefrom and treated him in an abusive, insulting, angry and threatening manner; and if the jury found from the evidence that the acts of defendant’s conductor subjected plaintiff to pain, humiliation and mortification, plaintiff was entitled to recover therefor such damages as the jury might believe from the evidence will compensate plaintiff for such pain, humiliation and mortification so suffered. And if the jury found from the evidence that such acts were done by defendant’s conductor with unnecessary violence, or with abusive or insulting language, “then the jury should further assess damages against the defendant in such sum as the jury may believe from the evidence will be a suitable punishment to defendant for such wrongful acts, and such damages should be separately stated in your verdict. ’ ’

At the instance of defendant the court instructed the jury that they could not find a verdict for plaintiff under the pleadings and evidence on account of the place where plaintiff was put off of defendant’s train as there was no evidence in the cause of the failure of defendant to put plaintiff off of its train at some usual stopping place or near some dwelling house.

At the instance of defendant the court also instructed the.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Conner
151 So. 355 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1933)
Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Tulsa Rig, Reel & Mfg. Co.
1923 OK 1108 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)
Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Ashinger
1916 OK 1043 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)
Keithley v. Lusk
177 S.W. 756 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 S.W. 647, 184 Mo. App. 187, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 548, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ligon-v-st-louis-san-francisco-railroad-moctapp-1914.