Pullman Co. v. Custer

140 S.W. 847, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 670
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 26, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 140 S.W. 847 (Pullman Co. v. Custer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pullman Co. v. Custer, 140 S.W. 847, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 670 (Tex. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

HIGGINS, J.

Action by appellee for damages because of humiliation, mental anguish, and distress alleged to have been sustained by reason of an unlawful ejectment from a sleeping car owned and operated by appellant and attached to Southern Pacific train; appellee and two companions having boarded said train through the Pullmans at Benson, Ariz.

[1] The uncontradicted- testimony, it is urged, fails to show an ejectment; but the testimony upon this phase of the case is sufficient to raise the issue. The fact that appellee was not actually within the car is immaterial. The testimony is sufficient to show that he and his companions boarded the train through the standard Pullmans, placing their baggage in one of the vestibules in charge of the porter; entered the dining car where they purchased Pullman transportation; and after leaving the diner and while standing in the vestibule of one of the standard Pullmans their money was refunded by Pullman conductor, tickets taken up, and plaintiff ejected from that portion of the train and compelled to enter the day coaches. This was sufficient to constitute an ejectment, and it is immaterial whether or not they were actually within the Pullmans; neither is it important in what coach their seat checks called for accommodations.

[2] In connection with a proper consideration of appellant’s assignments of error, it is proper to say we think the relation of passenger and carrier arose between the parties by the sale to appellee and his friends of Pullman seat checks.

[3] The question of whether or not the Pullman Company is a common carrier of passengers, in the ordinary sense of the term, is wholly immaterial in so far as concerns the duty of its employes to treat *849 its passengers courteously and considerately. This rule, applicable to common carriers also, applies to the extent of requiring its employés, in ejecting a passenger from its cars for any valid reason, to use no more force than is reasonably necessary, and in a courteous and considerate manner.

[4] The testimony in this case shows the Pullman transportation was purchased in the dining car and at that time the defendant’s conductor knew nothing about the objectionable articles which appellee desired to take with him into the Pullman. This consisted of several rolls of Mexican blankets being taken home to be used as portieres in the residences of the parties. Under the undisputed testimony regarding these blankets, we hold that they were not baggage, within the meaning of the law (Cyc. vol. 6, p. 666, and cases cited), and appellant had no right to carry same into the Pullman with him. This being true, it necessarily follows that the Pullman Company had the right, upon insistence by appellee of taking the blankets into the ears, to terminate the relation of passenger and carrier theretofore existing and which had arisen by the sale and purchase of the Pullman transportation in the dining car. Railway Co. v. Bullock, 60 N. J. Law, 24, 36 Atl. 773, 37 L. R. A. 417. While this is true, yet, as stated above, the right to terminate the contract and eject the party carried with it the corresponding duty to make the ejectment in a proper manner. Railway Co. v. Bullock, supra.

[5] In this connection, we think it also a correct proposition in such a case, where the relation of passenger and carrier has arisen, the right to eject is not an absolute one, but is subject to the right of the passenger to remove the objection urged to the continuance of the relation, and for that purpose he is entitled to, and should be allowed, a reasonable opportunity to check or otherwise dispose of his baggage. This right of the passenger, however, is not an absolute one either, for it would be useless to tender the opportunity to cheek unless the passenger would have availed himself thereof, and we think, too, that the opportunity to cheek should be allowed only when a desire to do so is manifested by the passenger. In other words, the carrier, or Pullman Company, is strictly within its legal rights in insisting that articles not properly classed as baggage should be excluded from its cars, and that the duty is incumbent upon the passenger to seek the opportunity of removing the objection urged to his carriage, rather than upon the carrier to take the initiative and tender the opportunity to check, not knowing whether it will be accepted or not.

Recurring back to the proposition of defendant’s legal right to exclude or eject: Appellant in this connection urges that, such being the case, no cause of action can be predicated upon the improper manner in which its conductor may have exercised this right, citing Pullman Co. v. Bales (Sup.) 14 S. W. 855. This case does not appear to have been subsequently cited, but, conceding the principles there enunciated to be the law in this state, we think the case at bar to be readily distinguishable. In the Bales Case the duty performed was apparent, and, under the peculiar circumstances, an absolute one; whereas here, as we have seen, the right of ejectment was not absolute but conditional, the passenger having the right to remain in the car by bringing himself within the rule applicable to his continued right of passage.

[6] Prom what has been said, it follows that appellant’s eleventh assignment of error should be sustained. This assignment complains of the submission in the court’s charge of whether “the plaintiff was ready, willing, and able to remove said blankets from the car and have them checked through as freight or express so as to retain his seat in said car”; the point being made that the testimony does not warrant the submission of this issue. The plaintiff testified that no opportunity to check was given and nothing was said about checking. He does not state he would have checked if an opportunity had been granted. His companion, Smith, states: “If he (conductor) had asked us as a gentleman to have our baggage checked we might have done so. * * * It is not a fact that we finally agreed to check the baggage.” Waiving the question of whether or not it was incumbent on plaintiff to request an opportunity to check or express the blankets, we think this testimony fails to evidence a willingness to do so. It was their duty to check, whether the conductor’s manner was proper or not.

[7] Appellee, however, insists that, the relation of passenger and carrier existing, they have a cause of action based upon the improper conduct and language of the conductor, irrespective of whether he was rightfully entitled to ride in the car and of the question of an opportunity, readiness, and willingness, to check. Railway Co. v. Hill, 103 S. W. 227; Railway Co. v. Kennedy, 9 Tex. Civ. App. 232, 29 S. W. 394; Railway Co. v. Kinnebrew, 7 Tex. Civ. App. 549, 27 S. W. 633; Railway Co. v. Tarkington, 27 Tex. Civ. App. 353, 66 S. W. 137. This, however, is not the question before us; the suit being based upon the lack of an opportunity to cheek.

[8] In the second assignment appellant complains of paragraphs 6, 7, 8, and especially 9 of the court’s charge in submitting the issue of whether or not the Mexican blankets were baggage. Paragraphs 6 and 9 are as follows:

“(6) By the term ‘baggage’ is meant whatever is necessary for the personal use and

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146 S.W. 612 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
140 S.W. 847, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pullman-co-v-custer-texapp-1911.