Pouilin v. Canadian Pac. Ry. Co.

47 F. 858, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1523
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan
DecidedOctober 13, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 47 F. 858 (Pouilin v. Canadian Pac. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pouilin v. Canadian Pac. Ry. Co., 47 F. 858, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1523 (circtedmi 1891).

Opinion

Swan, J.

The declaration in this cause sets forth fully the facts which constitute the plaintiff’s cause of action. In substance, it avers the defendant to be a common carrier of passengers between Detroit and Quebec; that its passenger agent at Detroit received plaintiff’s money in payment of his fare from Detroit to Quebec and return, in consideration of which the agent delivered to plaintiff a ticket, which purported to be, and was represented by the agent to be, good for plaintiff’s passage on defendant’s railway to Quebec and hack to Detroit; that plaintiff was carried under that ticket to Quebec, but was ejected from the cars of defendant on the return journey, because the ticket was incorrect, and not such as the conductor of the train was authorized to accept for the plaintiff’s passage. These allegations are followed by a statement of the damage resulting from his eviction, for which plaintiff asks compensation. There is no express allegation that it was defendant’s duty to carry plaintiff under the contract, but that is unnecessary. From the facts stated, the law implies that duty, and that is sufficient. 1 Chit. Pl. 398, 399; Gladwell v. Steggall, 5 Bing. N. C. 733. The relation of carrier and passenger subsisted between the parties, and the carrier had entered upon the performance of his contract. The plaintiff had paid the fare demanded, and it was the legal duty of defendant, not only to carry him to Quebec and back to Detroit, but to furnish the plaintiff with a proper ticket, which would evidence the holder’s right to transport and protect him against an apparently justifiable evasion of that right by the conductor of the train. Whether or not the plaintiff may be held to have been negligent in failing to detect the error in the ticket is not an inquiry here, in the face of the allegation in the declaration, which the demurrer admits, that the eviction of “plaintiff was not due to any negligence on his part.” The actual contract between the parties was that pleaded, viz., for his carriage from Detroit to Quebec and return. The primary wrong done to plaintiff was the negligent failure to provide him with a proper ticket evidencing the real contract. As between the conductor and the passenger, the ticket haa been held to he conclusive evidence of the rights of the passenger. Frederick v. Railroad Co., 37 Mich. 342; Hufford v. Railway Co., 53 Mich. 118, 18 N. W. Rep. 580. Yet, as between the company and the passenger, the ordinary ticket is not regarded as conclusive evidence of the contract, hut as a mere token or voucher to the carrier’s servants, who have the conduct of tne train, that the holder has paid his fare. Quinby v. Vanderbilt, 17 N. Y. 306; Rawson v. Railroad Co., 48 N. Y. 212; Van Buskirk v. Roberts, 31 N. Y. 661; Henderson v. Stevenson, L. R. 2 H. L. Sc. 470; Railroad Co. v. Harris, 12 Wall. 65; Peterson v. Railroad Co., 80 Iowa, 92, 97, 45 N. W. Rep. 573. While the defect of the ticket presented exempts the conductor from an action for expelling the pas[860]*860senger, or, at least, from exemplary damages, when he acts in good faith, and without unnecessary force, it does not protect the company or its passenger agent from an action for a breach of the contraci which the agent was authorized to make, and did make, with the passenger. Railroad Co. v. Pierce, 47 Mich. 277, 11 N. W. Rep. 157; Murdock v. Railroad Co.. 137 Mass. 293; Hufford v. Railway Co., 53 Mich. 118, 18 N. W. Rep, 580, 64 Mich. 631, 81 N. W. Rep. 544; Railroad Co. v. Carr, 71 Md. 185, 17 Atl. Rep. 1052. The passenger agent was the company’s alter ego for the purpose of making the contract of carriage, and for his mistake or negligence in the line of his duty his principal must respond. Mechanics Bank v. Bank of Columbia, 5 Wheat. 326; Bank v. Stewart, 114 U. S. 228, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep, 845; Railroad Co. v. Rice, 64 Md. 63, 21 Atl. Rep. 97; Cooley, Torts, p. 538; Wood, Mast. & S. p. 640. There was a clear violation of the duty of the carrier to the passenger — an invasion, to the latter’s damage, of the right which he had purchased— in negligently subjecting him to the indignity, delay, and discomfort which, on the facts alleged, followed his expulsion. Railroad Co. v. Carr, 71 Md. 141, 17 Atl. Rep, 1052. For these no recovery could be. had in an action of assumpsit. Goddard v. Railroad Co., 57 Me. 202, Walsh v. Railroad Co., 42 Wis. 23. For the redress of these grievances, an action of tort is appropriate. “Declarations against carriers in tort areas old as the law, and continued until Dale v. Hall, 1 Wils. 281, when the practice of declaring in assumpsit succeeded. But this practice does not supersede the other. * * * This was only declaring as usual for four hundred years before Dalev. Had.” Per Bayley, J., in Ansell v. Waterhouse, 2 Chit. 1. According to Chitty, though assumpsit is the usual remedy for breach of duty against carriers and bailees, yet it is clear they are also liable in case of injury resulting from their negligence or breach of duty in the course of their employ. 1 Chit. PI. 151. When the’ relation of carrier and passenger is once formed, the law annexes to the contract of the carrier certain duties. For the nonperformance, the passenger may bring an action of tort. The class of cases in which action on the case lies is well stated by Littledale, J., in Burnett v. Lynch, 5 Barn. & C. 609:

“When, from a given state of facts, the law raises a legal obligation to do a particular act, and there is a breach of that obligation, and a consequential damage therefrom, although assumpsit may be maintained upon a promise implied by law to do the act, still an action on the ease founded in tort is the more proper form of action, in which the plaintiff states the facts out of which the legal obligation arises, the obligation itself, the breach of it, and the damage resulting from that breach; for that is the most accurate description of the real cause of action, and that form of action in which the real cause of action is most accurately described is the best adapted to every ease. ”

It is well settled that, when the gist of the action is a tort that arises out of a contract, plaintiff may declare in tort or contract, at his election. The contract in such cases is laid merely as inducement, and as the foundation of the duty in respect to which plaintiff is said to be in default. 1 Chit. Pl. 152, 397; Emigh v. Railroad Co., 4 Biss. 114; Railroad Co. v. Constable, 39 Md. 149; Saltonstall v. Stockton, Taney, 11, 18. [861]*861“Wherever,” says Lord Campbell, “there is a contract, and something to be done in the course of the employment which is the subject of that contract, if there is a breach of duty in the course of that employment, the plaintiff may cither recover in tort or in contract.” Brown v. Boor-man, 11 Clark & F. 43, affirming 3 Adol. & E. (N. S.) 845. The great weight of later authority also affirms the propriety of this form of action in suits against carriers and bailees. It was adopted in all the Michigan cases cited swpra., and in Thomas v. Railroad Co., 72 Mich. 355, 40 N. W. Rep. 463, in which plaintiff sued for ejection from a train. It is said, indeed, in Frederick v. Railroad Co., cited

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Bluebook (online)
47 F. 858, 1891 U.S. App. LEXIS 1523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pouilin-v-canadian-pac-ry-co-circtedmi-1891.