Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Street

59 N.E. 404, 26 Ind. App. 224, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 248
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 12, 1901
DocketNo. 3,390
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 59 N.E. 404 (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Street) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Street, 59 N.E. 404, 26 Ind. App. 224, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 248 (Ind. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Wiley, J.

Appellee sued appellant to recover damages for an alleged wrongful ejectment from one of its trains. The facts upon which appellee bases his cause of action are stated in two voluminous paragraphs of his complaint'. To each paragraph of complaint a demurrer was addressed and overruled. Appellant’s answer was in four paragraphs. Reply in denial. Bury trial; verdict and judgment for appellee. Motion for a new trial overruled. Overruling the demurrer to each paragraph of complaint and the motion for a new trial are assigned as errors.

Appellee had purchased and had in his possession a ticket known and called the “Central Passengers’ Association Interchangeable 1,000 mile Rebate Exchange Ticket.” It is charged that though the contract was made in the name of the Central Passenger Association by F. C. Donald, commissioner, it was in fact made by appellant in that name and by the association in behalf of and with authority of the appellant. The contract limiting the use of the ticket is set out in full in the complaint. Appellee presented the ticket at a regular ticket office of appellant, at a proper time, and demanded an exchange ticket, which his contract provided should be procured, and was informed by the agent that the supply of such exchange tickets had been exhausted and that he could not furnish him with one. It is further averred that appellant’s ticket agent, at Hamilton, Ohio, where appellee had presented his said interchangeable [226]*226ticket, informed him that appellant had a regulation by which, under the circumstances which then existed, the conductor had authority to give him transportation on his mileage ticket, without an exchange ticket, by tearing out mileage from Hosiers, which was the next flag station south of Hamilton, that being the direction appellee desired to go; that such agent tendered appellee the amount of faro from Hamilton to Hosiers, which he declined, and said the conductor might tear out mileage from his book to Richmond, Indiana, where he desired to go. It is also averred that such ticket agent told appellee that he could use his interchangeable mileage ticket on the train without an exchange ticket; that appellee believed and relied upon said statement and entered one of appellant’s regular passenger trains for passage to Richmond, presented to the conductor his interchangeable ticket, and fully informed him of the facts in regard to his attempt and failure to procure a rebate ticket, and what said agent said to him about using his interchangeable ticket; that the conductor refused to accept such interchangeable ticket, and ej ected. appellee from the train at a station named. It is also averred and the contract set out shows that the mileage ticket held by appellee should under no circumstances be accepted for passage on a train. The complaint further shows that appellee was accompanied by his wife, for whom he had purchased a ticket; that he did not have with him money to purchase a ticket for himself; that after he had been wrongfully ejected as aforesaid, he was compelled to procure a conveyance to carry him to Eaton to take a late train to Richmond, his destination, at which place he did not arrive till a late hour at night.

The above facts are gleaned from the first paragraph of the complaint. The second paragraph avers the same material facts, except that it omits any allegations as to what the agent at Hamilton said to appellee as to his right, under the existing circumstances, to use on the train his interchangeable mileage ticket.

Our attention has not been called in argument to any [227]*227decided case, and we have been nnable after careful research to find that the identical question here presented has been adjudicated in any court of last resort. We find, however, some cases where a similar principle of law has been ably discussed, and, as we think, correctly decided.

As to appellee’s right to recover under the allegations of the complaint, counsel for appellant suggests and discusses three propositions: (1) Had appellant’s ticket agent at Hamilton power, as a matter of law, to bind appellant by his statement to appellee ? (2.) Had appellee, on the advice of the ticket agent, a right to go upon the train as a passneger, knowing that he did not have an exchange ticket, which his contract required that he should have, and demand that he be carried upon his mileage ticket alone ? (3) That if there was a violation of the special contract in appellant’s failure to furnish appellee with an exchange ticket, he was confined in his legal remedy for the violation of his rights under the contract, and that he had no right to enter the train as a passenger, and after his ejection, under the facts stated, sue for resulting damages.

It is further suggested in argument that the interchange- • able ticket purchased by appellee was issued by the Central Passengers’ Association, and that appellant was not a party to the contract. It is shown that the Central Passengers’ Association is a combination composed of a great number of railroad companies, and that appellant was one of the number. The complaint shows that the ticket in question was purchased of appellant at its ticket office at Richmond, Indiana. It does not seem to us that it makes any difference because the ticket was issued by the Central Passenger Association, for we are clear that such association, in issuing the ticket, was the agent of appellant, for appellant was a part and parcel of the association, and it would therefore be bound by its acts within the scope of its authority. And this fact is emphasized by the additional fact that appellant itself sold the ticket to appellee.

[228]*228As to appellant’s first proposition, we do not think that what appellant’s agent at Hamilton told appellee constitutes an important factor in the case, and yet it may he important to decide the question. Under the terms of the contract, upon which the interchangeable ticket was sold to appellee, although it is not expressly so declared, it was the duty of appellant to keep on hand at all of its regular ticket offices an adequate supply of exchange tickets, to meet the demands of holders of interchangeable tickets when presented, under the rules and regulations governing their issue. A holder of such ticket has the right to presume that any member of the association will keep on hand at its regular ticket offices a sufficient supply of such exchange tickets, and will furnish the same upon proper demand and under prescribed rules. It follows from this that it was the duty of appellant to furnish appellee an exchange ticket from Hamilton, Ohio, to Richmond, Indiana, when he presented to the ticket agent at the former place his interchangeable ticket, showing his right to such exchange ticket, and the fact that the supply had been exhausted was not a valid excuse on appellant’s part to violate its contract. Appellee had paid $30 for his interchangeable ticket, as shown by the complaint. Such ticket entitled him to 1,000 miles transportation over the lines of the association, upon compliance with the terms of the contract. He had thus paid three cents a mile for every mile he might thus travel. The fact that he was entitled to a rebate of $10 after using all the mileage, by surrendering the cover, etc., can make no difference. He complied with the terms of the contract when he presented his mileage book and demanded an exchange ticket. He was deprived of his right under the contract by the act of appellant.

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Bluebook (online)
59 N.E. 404, 26 Ind. App. 224, 1901 Ind. App. LEXIS 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pittsburgh-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-v-street-indctapp-1901.