Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Applewhite

52 Ind. 540
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 52 Ind. 540 (Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Applewhite) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Applewhite, 52 Ind. 540 (Ind. 1876).

Opinion

Downey, C. J.

— Action by the appellee against the appellant. It was commenced in Jackson county, and the venue changed to Washington county.

The complaint alleges that on March 20th, 1873, appellant received appellee on one of its passenger trains, to be carried from Brownstown to North Vernon and back again to Brownstown, for one dollar and fifty cents, which sum appellee paid; that while appellee was a passenger, returning to Brownstown, in a passenger ear, and after he had delivered his ticket to the conductor on said train, appellant wilfully failed, neglected and refused to stop said train at Brownstown a sufficient length of time to let him^get off at Brownstown, although requested so to do, but wrongfully, wilfully and unlawfully carried him past said Brownstown to Vincennes, a distance of ninety-six miles from his home and place of destination, against his will, and there permitted him to get off said cars, at a late hour in the night, in a strange place, and among strangers, and, on account of the gross neglect of appellant in the premises, compelled him to [541]*541pay hotel bill, one dollar and fifty cents, and three dollars and eighty cents fare from Vincennes to Brownstown, and caused him to lose one day’s time and to stay up the greater part of the night, by reason of said wrongful and unlawful acts of appellant, to plaintiff’s damage five hundred dollars.

A demurrer to this complaint was filed, which was overruled by the court.

The defendant answered by a general denial and four special paragraphs. The special paragraphs were, on motion of the plaintiff, struck out by the court.

There -was a trial by jury, and a verdict for the plaintiff, on which, after overruling a motion of the defendant for a new trial, there was final judgment.

The appellee has moved to dismiss the appeal for various reasons, and among them for defects in the clerk’s certificate to the transcript. Under a rule of the court, we have granted leave to have the certificate amended, and that objection has been avoided by making the necessary amendment. Other grounds of the motion relate to matters which are not reasons for dismissing the appeal.

Among the errors assigned by the appellant is, that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the complaint. This alleged error is not argued or urged, and perhaps has no good foundation. The complaint seems to us to be sufficient.

It is assigned as error, that the court improperly struck out the second, third, foiu’th and fifth paragraphs of the answer. But neither is this objection urged. It could not be, in fact, for there is no bill of exceptions reserving the question.

Under the error assigned relating to the motion for a new trial several questions arise, only a part of which need be examined.

We give the evidence of the plaintiff and that of the conductor on behalf of the defendant. We do this as the readiest mode of getting into the opinion the most material facts [542]*542of the case. There is other testimony in the record on each side. •

Appellee testified: “On March 20th, 1873, W. Scott "Wilkerson bought two tickets for passage on appellant’s railroad from Brownstown to North Vernon and return — one for himself and one for me. We got on the mail train at Brownstown, at about 5:30 p. m., and arrived at North Vernon about 7 P. M., same evening. The conductor, as we went up, took up the portion of each ticket to North Vernon, and handed back the return portion. We got on the train at North Vernon, bound west, about 2 A. M., to return to Brownstown, and when the conductor, Fields, came for our tickets, Wilkerson handed him the return portion of our tickets. When he took them, he said, ‘How do you expect to get to Brownstown?’ Wilkerson replied, ‘By the way of the O. & M.’ That was all the conversation we had with him at that time. The next time I saw the conductor was at Medora, eight miles west of Brownstown. From the point where the conductor took up our tickets to Medora was about thirty-five miles. The train did not stop at Brownstown. Medora was the first place the train stopped after leaving Brownstown. When Mr. Wilkerson handed our tickets to the conductor, he seemed to be mad because we wanted him to stop at Brownstown. I judged so from the manner in which he asked the question, ‘ How do you expect to get to Brownstown?’ At Medora the conductor said to me, ‘You had better get off here.’ I -went to the door of the car and asked him, ‘What place is this?’ He then said, ‘ Medora.’ I said to him, ‘ I guess I won’t get off here.’ He said, ‘I will see if you don’t.’ I said, ‘ You can put us off, but we do not intend to get off.’ The conductor did not seem to like it because we would not get off. When we said we would not get off, he said he would see if we did not get off at Scottville or Tunnelton. I did not get off at Medora. The fare from Brownstown to Medora is thirty-five or forty cents. We got to Medora about 3 o’clock a. m. The conductor did not propose to [543]*543send us back from Medora to Brownstown. There was no train standing on the switch at Medora that I saw. The train bound east passed us while we were there on the sidetrack. The conductor gave us no notice that there was a train at Medora on which we could return to Brownstown. He did not tell us when we could get back from Medora to Brownstown. I think the train did not stop again until we got to Mitchell. At Mitchell the conductor did not request us to get off, or inform us when we could get back. We did not ask him to let us off at any place. After we passed Mitchell, the conductor said, ‘Well, boys, you can go as far as I do. ’ I answered, ‘ Well, that is as far as we want to go.’ We continued on the train to Vincennes, which is ninety-five or one hundred miles west of Brownstown. In the conversation just after we passed Mitchell, the conductor asked us how we expected to get back. I said, we intended to come back with him. He replied, ‘Well, if you do, you will have to pay your fare.’ At or near Washington, he asked us if we were looking for a location. We said, ‘Yes.’ Something was then said about a ‘free ride,’ and that we might as well look at the country now as any time. This was the last conversation. We got off the train at Vincennes, and were compelled to remain there until 2 or 3 p. M., when we got on the mail train and paid our fare to Brownstown, which was three dollars and eighty cents each. We got breakfast and dinner at Vincennes, which cost us one dollar and fifty cents each. I saw Mr. Fields, the conductor, as we were leaving Vincennes, standing in the door of the Junction Hotel. He bowed to me and I to him. We arrived at Brownstown about 6 p. M., the same day. At that time I was acting deputy auditor of Jackson county. I lost one day. My time was worth two dollars. I was kept up the greater part of the night. I did not get on the train at Eorth Vernon till 2 A. M. All the stations I have spoken of are on the Ohio and Mississippi Eailway. I know E. H. Sawyer, appellant’s agent at Brownstown. I never told him that the conductor told us to get off at Seymour. I never [544]*544told him, in the presence ef B. J. C. Smith, that I had an arrangement with the superintendent to stop the train at Brownstown. Sometimes, before the 20th of March, I went to Seymour once or twice a week. I did not travel over appellant’s railroad as often as once a week. I was conversant with mail train east and No. 3 west. I did not know that No. 4 east and No. 5 west did not stop at Brownstown. I got off the train at Seymour, and went into the Harvey House.

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52 Ind. 540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ohio-mississippi-railway-co-v-applewhite-ind-1876.