Picking v. Pennsylvania R. Co.

3 F.R.D. 425, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1412
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 25, 1944
DocketCivil Action No. 1227
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 3 F.R.D. 425 (Picking v. Pennsylvania R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Picking v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 3 F.R.D. 425, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1412 (M.D. Pa. 1944).

Opinion

JOHNSON, District Judge.

This is a civil action commenced in the Middle District of Pennsylvania by residents of the State of Maryland against the above named defendants, some of whom are residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the rest of whom are residents of the State of New York.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mrs. Ida M. Picking, who is one of the plaintiffs above named.

The complaint itself, comprising one hundred fifty-four (154) separate paragraphs, is complex, prolix, contradictory, and replete with conclusions inextrically entangled with allegations of fact. In every respect it violates the rules for simplified pleading, set forth in the Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts of the United States.

The complaint, alleging conspiracy, does not set forth the facts relied upon by plaintiffs in the order of their occurrence but first set forth plaintiff’s allegations against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The method adopted by plaintiffs in the preparation of the complaint adds to the difficulty of separating the facts and presenting them in proper order. The ability of the defendant railroad company to respond •in damage may have been responsible for this singular method of drawing the complaint.

The facts, briefly stated, are as follows: The plaintiffs, at that time residents of the State of Florida, were arrested in the City of New York on November 1, 1940. As -set forth in paragraph 115 of the complaint, the arrest was made for violation of a parking regulation. As well as can be ascertained from the complaint, the plaintiffs, while held on the above charge, or soon thereafter, were again arrested for a violation of a Statute of the State of New York and charged with desecration of the American flag. Plaintiffs allege that (par. 118) “thereafter plaintiffs were charged with a crime by acts described under affidavit before Magistrate Aurelio, and ordered to be signed by Georg' Bryant as a substituted complaint.” The charge at that time, according to paragraph 119 of the complaint, is alleged in the following words: “The substance of s id acts were that plaintiffs had ‘displayed a flag picture, with an advertisement, on their car.’ ” Plaintiffs allege that on February 5, 1941, a substitution of record in the magistrate’s court was made and in paragraph 132 of the complaint set forth that: “The substituted pleading alleged that plaintiffs had placed.an advertisement upon the flag, but was unsupported by oath.” Plaintiffs’ claim is that some time later “one of the justices of the inferior city court was induced to exceed his authority” and issue a bench warrant “upon said falsified and substituted pleading” and that this act constitutes a part of the conspiracy.

A bench warrant issued, and thereafter the plaintiffs being found in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, were removed to New York by authority of an extradition warrant. Plaintiffs claim that the extradition proceedings were illegal and that the defendants Thomas E. Dewey, Arthur H. James, and Herbert H. Lehman, individually, conspired to injure them thereby. Plaintiffs further allege that at the time of the execution of the extradition warrant at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, they were forcibly and unlawfully seized and assaulted “and with undue force and violence, pushed, pulled, pinched and dragged about the highway in the presence of about 300 people who had gathered for a parade.” For these alleged acts the defendants, Sweeney, Mackey and Rotz of Chambers-burg, Pennsylvania, are alleged to be liable. The preceding paragraph (53) indicates that some degree of force was necessary to enforce the warrant as “Plaintiffs thereupon determined that they would neither be deprived of their liberty by persons purporting to act for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but who were actually acting in direct violation of their duty.” Paragraph 110 also illuminates the occur-' rences during this time as: “Plaintiffs, in the preservation of their civil rights, rightfully resisted said unlawful seizure and imprisonment and were greviously (sic) injured.” Plaintiffs further allege that at this time they suffered physical injuries and mental suffering as well, as damage to their apparel.

The further allegations are made that the defendant Kiefer, a justice of the peace, denied plaintiffs a judicial hearing; that they were imprisoned in the county jail of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, at Chambersburg by the defendants Roy G. Kell, J. [427]*427L. Kell, and Mrs. J. L. Kell “without lawful commitments for reasons aforesaid.” The “reasons aforesaid” appear, upon an examination of the complaint, to be a determination upon the part of these defendants to “unlawfully seize plaintiffs in the presence of about 300 people who had gathered for a parade.” (Par. 52) In paragraph 58 it is alleged that: “Said defendants who actually and physically participated in the unlawful seizures, injuries, and unlawful imprisonment of plaintiffs without commitments, on said date, were as follows: Louis Costuma, H. S. Beyers, G. J. Sweeney, Samuel D. Mackey, C. B. Rotz, W. R. Kiefer, Roy G. Kell, J. L. Kell, and Mrs. J. L. Kell.” Plaintiffs allege (par. 25) that while they were held in the Franklin County jail the defendants, J. L. Kell and Mrs. J. L. Kell, “took plaintiffs’ petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus from plaintiff, Ida Picking, on the pretense of unlawfully censoring it.” Paragraph 26 contains the assertion that the defendant, Roy G. Kell “took said petition from his brother, J. L., and ran out of the door of the jail with it over the protest of plaintiffs.” It is to be inferred that the petition was never returned to plaintiffs.

It is necessary to go back to paragraph 13 of the complaint to secure the next allegation which is that the defendant, Mary Graham, stole $10 from the person of the plaintiff, Ida M. Picking, while she was detained in the women’s room of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s station awaiting arrival of the train for New York.

The allegations against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company are contained in paragraphs 5 to 12 of the complaint and claim that although plaintiffs notified the agent of the railroad company, who “wore the usual uniform of the said corporation and was acting in the course of his duties” of plaintiff’s claim that they were being unlawfully transported, their protests and notice were disregarded by the agent. The agent, to whom plaintiffs pointed out alleged errors in the extradition warrant, is not further identified. It is alleged by plaintiffs that the defendant railroad company is therefore liable to plaintiffs for damages sustained by them, not only for “unlawfully and forcibly transporting plaintiffs,” but also jointly and severally for all other damages sustained by plaintiffs during the course of events above outlined, as (par 37) the defendant railroad company by transporting plaintiffs, “adopted said acts as their own”. Any use of force by the agent of the railroad company in transporting plaintiffs is not alleged in the complaint and plaintiffs were at that time in the custody of defendant E. D. Fitzpatrick, of the New York police, who was designated as one of the persons authorized to take plaintiffs into custody.

Paragraphs 146 to 154 inclusive, contain further allegations of damages by reason of which plaintiffs claim from the defendants the sum of $1,120,050.

The time for filing answers to the complaint was extended and all the Pennsylvania defendants filed motions to dismiss the complaint.

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Related

Boerstler v. American Medical Ass'n
16 F.R.D. 437 (N.D. Illinois, 1954)
Picking v. Pennsylvania R.
5 F.R.D. 84 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1946)
Picking v. Pennsylvania R. Co.
151 F.2d 240 (Third Circuit, 1945)

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Bluebook (online)
3 F.R.D. 425, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/picking-v-pennsylvania-r-co-pamd-1944.