Noble v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad

4 Okla. 534
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 15, 1896
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Okla. 534 (Noble v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noble v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 4 Okla. 534 (Okla. 1896).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

McAtee, J:

The petition of the plaintiff in error, plaintiff below, was filed in the district court of Logan county on the 14th day of August, 189.4, and declared that the plaintiff, on the 4th day of August, 1894, bought a ticket from the ticket agent of the defendant company at Guthrie, O. T., authorizing him, as a passenger, to ride over the road and in the cars of the defendants from the city of Guthrie to Lawrie, a point upon said line of railroad, and that, as said passenger, the plaintiff in error entered the cars of the defendant in error and took his seat therein; yet, said defendant company, by its agents and servants, disregarding its duty as such common carriers of passengers, did, before the cars of the said defendant company had reached the said town of Lawrie, and between the city of Guthrie and the town of Law-rie, at a point on the line of said road where there was no depot or place that had been used for the purpose of receiving and discharging passengers, stopped its train [536]*536and wrongfully and unlawfully forced and expelled the plaintiff from the cars of the said defendants and refused to the plaintiff permission to further ride in the cars of the defendant company, and left the plaintiff there without having completed his journey, whereby he was greatly delayed in his business, and other wrongs then and there wrongfully, forcibly and unlawfully did to said plaintiff, to his damage in the sum of tive thousand dollars.

The defendants filed an answer of general denial, and for a second defense alleged that the train on which the plaintiff took passage was a through passenger train, known as train No. 406, which, according to the rules and regulations of the defendants, was not scheduled to stop at the station of Lawrie; that the plaintiff was not entitled to ride as a passenger from the city of Guthrie to the station of Lawrie on said train; that the defendant company had other good and sufficient trains which ran between those points and which did stop at that station, one of which left Guthrie within one hour of the time of the departure of train No. 406; that the plaintiff was notified by the conductor in charge of the train between said stations that he could not get off of said train at said station of Lawrie, and requested the plaintiff to pay twenty-seven cents additional fare to the station of Mul-hall, the nearest station where the train was scheduled to stop, and notified the plaintiff that unless such fare was paid, the said conductor would be compelled to stop the train and eject the plaintiff therefrom; that the said plaintiff refused to pay such additional fare and continued to insist on having the train stop at Lawrie, and remained upon the train and was a trespasser thereon until the train was stopped, and plaintiff requested to [537]*537leave the train, which be did with the assistance of the conductor and other officers, without violence or force.

To this answer a reply of general denial was filed. The case was tried on May 2, 1895, to a jury, and evidence was adduced to show that on the morning of the 4 th of August, 1894, the plaintiff in error applied to the ticket agent at the railroad station in the city of Guthrie, for a ticket to Lawrie.

It was in evidence,. that as soon as the train came in the plaintiff in error boarded it for his point of destination, and before reaching said point, and between the city of Guthrie and the town of Lawrie, the plaintiff in error tendered his ticket to the conductor, who demanded his fare, and was then for the first time informed that the train was not scheduled to stop at Lawrie, the point of plaintiff’s destination, The plaintiff in error declined to pay additional fare to the station of Mulhall, the first station at which that train was scheduled to stop, and thereupon the conductor stopped the train and put him off, about one or one and a half miles south of Lawrie.

It was shown by the evidence that the train in question was a through express train from Galveston to Chicago; that it was not scheduled by the rules of the company to stop at small stations, and that the statkm of Lawrie was merely a way station of no importance, and that there was only one or two houses at that point; and that there was kept in stock at the time by the defendant company printed folders containing full information as to the train schedule for the use of the traveling public, which could be had at the ticket office upon application.

It was shown that the train in question left the station of Guthrie at 5:55 A. M., and that there were two other trains in service daily which .stopped at said station of Lawrie, one of which left Guthrie at 7 o’clock a’, m. The [538]*538defendant’s office at Guthrie was open at all hours of the day for the sale of tickets to any point or station.

Upon the close of the evidence the court, on the motion of the defendants, directed the jury to return a verdict for the defendants, to which the plaintiff in error excepted, and brings the case here.

The petition states a case in tort. In- the absence of statutory provisions to the contrary, a railroad company has a right to adopt a regulation, providing that one of its regular trains of passenger cars, or a part of them, running regularly upon its road, shall not stop at certain designated stations. And the duty is imposed upon one proposing to travel as a passenger on such road, to inform himself whether the train upon which he takes passage stops"at the station or place to which he is going, according to the regulations of the company. This is well settled in numerous cases.

And in the absense of such statutory provisions, and such regulations having been made upon the road, a passenger who holds a ticket for a station at which that train does not stop, and who is unwilling to ride to a station at which such train does stop, and to pay for such additional ride, he may, in the proper manner, be removed from such train. (Cleveland R. R. Co. v. Bertram, 11 Oh. St. 457; A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co. v. Gants, 38 Kan. 617; Penn. Co. v. Wentz, 37 Oh. St. 337; Ohio etc. R. Co. v. Applewhite, 52 Ind. 540; Ohio, etc. R. Co. v. Swarthout, 67 Ind. 567; Chicago, etc. R. Co. v. Randolph, 53 Ind. 510; A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co. v. Cameron, 66 Fed. Rep. 609; Cheney v. Boston & Maine R. R. Co., 11 Me. 121.)

The necessary information could have been had from the agent of the defendant company when the ticket was procured. It was not shown that the plaintiff sought to [539]*539inform himself, or to make any inquiry as to whether the train upon which he proposed to take passage would stop at the station of Lawrie or not, as it was incumbent upon him to do.

It is, however, argued by the plaintiff in error that he was misled or misinformed by the- agent, or that a special agreement was made by the defendant company through its agent by which he was to be put off at the station of Lawrie. This contention is based upon the evidence, that:

“I went to the ticket window, and asked the agent how long before the north bound passenger was due, and he said, ‘eight or ten minuets;’ said I, ‘will you please let me have a ticket for Lawrie;’ and that was all the conversation that passed. He sold me the ticket, and I paid for it.”

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Bluebook (online)
4 Okla. 534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noble-v-atchison-topeka-santa-fe-railroad-okla-1896.