Ransom v. Matson Nav. Co.

1 F. Supp. 244, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1704
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedApril 29, 1932
DocketNo. 20581
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1 F. Supp. 244 (Ransom v. Matson Nav. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ransom v. Matson Nav. Co., 1 F. Supp. 244, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1704 (W.D. Wash. 1932).

Opinion

NETERER, District Judge.

Plaintiff seeks to recover from the Matson Navigation Company, a California corporation, the Dollar Steamship Lines, a California corporation, L. J. Lancaster, district passenger agent of the Dollar Steamship Lines, Margaret Hamilton, resident at Seattle and employed by the Travelers’ Aid Society, for “wrongful and unlawful imprisonment and restraint of the plaintiff by the defendants, and assaults upon the plaintiff by the defendants, and the administering of hypnotic drugs, and the libelous slander against the plaintiff by the herein defendants * * *. The plaintiff has suffered-great and excruciating pain, loss of social prestige and earning power, to the damage of her character and repu[245]*245tation, and will continue to suffer, to her damage and loss in the amount of $500,000.00; wherefore plaintiff prays for judgment against herein defendants in the amount of $500,000.00, and have costs and disbursements herein * *

Each corporate defendant, it is said, maintains an office in Seattle, Wash., and each operates steamship lines: The Matson Navigation Company between the “cities of Honolulu, Yokahama, Seattle and San Francisco and various other ports”; the Dollar Steamship Lines between the “cities of Honolulu, Yokahama, Seattle and other ports.” Lancaster is district passenger agent of the Dollar Steamship Lines, Seattle; Margaret Hamilton is a resident of Seattle, employed by the Travelers’ Aid Society. The defendant Matson Navigation Company is the owner of the majority of the stock in Territorial Hotels Company, Limited, at Honolulu, with interlocking officers and directors, and is given as a subsidiary of the Matson Navigation Company, and is managed by said navigation company’s agents; “that in the fall of 1929, through its agent and subsidiary,” the hotels company engaged plaintiff as a “social hostess and publicity and society news writer,” and she entered upon this employment December 31, 1929; that the contract-of employment was breached at the inspiration of the Matson Navigation Company, and. suit begun by the plaintiff in Honolulu for unpaid salary and damages; that while suit was pending, the Matson Navigation Company, to prevent prosecution of said action, caused plaintiff to be “kidnapped, imprisoned and forcibly removed” from that jurisdiction, on the steamship Malolo, “and shanghaied out of the city of Honolulu” and carried to Yokahama, and thence carried aboard the steamship President Taft, operated by the Dollar Steamship Lines, and was there imprisoned and guarded until that vessel sailed from the port of Yokahama bound for the port of Seattle; that on arrival at the city of Seattle, plaintiff was “by force removed from that vessel and taken to the city hospital and thence to the city jail unlawfully and wrongfully and against her will, and by force was imprisoned therein in the insane cell through the directions of the agents and representatives of the defendants, and in furtherance of the herein alleged combination, confederation and conspiracy to injure plaintiff to slander and imprison her as insane.” It is then alleged that the defendants stated to newspaper men and fellow passengers and other divers persons that plaintiff was dangerously insane; that while she was “wrongfully, unlawfully and forcibly imprisoned on the steamships Malolo and President Taft and in the city hospital and city jail, the defendants through their agents and representatives and employees caused plaintiff to be assaulted and unlawfully and wrongfully charged her with being an insane stowaway and administered to her hypnotic drugs and hypodermic injections against her will, causing her great suffering,” physically and mentally; that while she was wrongfully restrained on the steamship Malolo operated by the Matson Navigation Company, she was assaulted and beaten by nurses, and she was assaulted and had her hair pulled by another, an officer of the Malolo, “pummelled” and assaulted by other divers persons on board the Malolo, who administered hypodermic needles in the arm of the plaintiff and forced her to drink opiates and other hypnotic drugs to induce unconsciousness ; that while on the steamship of the Dollar Steamship Lines she was “brutally thrown to the floor by a number of Chinese stewards * • * * and forcibly held in bed by stewardess * * * who continually administered to plaintiff Roche’s Elixor of Atúrate, a hypnotic drug to induce unconsciousness,” and passengers were told that she was insane; that she was not allowed to mingle with other passengers, which was done solely for the purpose of restraining plaintiff of her freedom; that upon arrival of the steamship at Seattle, plaintiff was prevented from going ashore with other passengers; that she was wrongfully held by defendants, through their agent Lancaster, who caused plaintiff to be delivered into the custody of Margaret Hamilton of the Travelers’ Aid Society; that “Lancaster and Hamilton did publish and cause to be published in the daily newspapers of the city of Seattle, Wash., false and malicious statements that plaintiff was an insane stowaway, and did orally tell newspaper reporters who came on board the steamship of the Dollar Line for the purpose of interviewing plaintiff as a world renowned dramatic artist and to take her photograph for the newspapers, that plaintiff was a stowaway and insane, and tried to prevent said reporters from interviewing plaintiff, and held plaintiff in the custody of the Travelers’ Aid Society and the defendant Margaret Hamilton until other passengers had left the steamship.”

It is also alleged that the defendants and each of them entered into a combination, confederation, and conspiracy to degrade and injure the plaintiff by slandering her as an insane stowaway for the purpose of exposing [246]*246her to public hatred and deprive her of the benefit of public confidence and to injure her in her earning power, and in furtherance of the combination, confederation, etc., did cause the plaintiff to be unlawfully imprisoned and restrained of her liberty and did publish and cause to be published in the newspapers throughout the world that plaintiff was insane and a stowaway on the steamships Malolo and the President Taft.

The defendant Matson Navigation Company demurs to the complaint, for the reason that several causes of action are improperly united, that allegations do not affect all the parties defendant, and do not arise oiit of the same transaction, and are not separately stated; second, moves to strike the amended complaint for that it contains more than one alleged cause of action, which are not separately stated; without waiving the other motion to strike various portions of the amended complaint, to make more definite and certain, and, in the alternative, for a bill of particulars.

The defendant Lancaster moves to strike the amended complaint on the ground that it does not comply with the order of the court heretofore made upon challenge of the original complaint; not waiving the motion, moves to strike the amended complaint on the ground that the same contains more than one alleged cause of action, which are not separately stated; and without waiving, moves to require plaintiff to separately state each of the several causes of action therein contained; and not waiving the other motions, to require the plaintiff to make the complaint more definite and certain in setting out the act or acts of the imprisonment committed, and without waiving, for a bill of particulars.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1 F. Supp. 244, 1932 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1704, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ransom-v-matson-nav-co-wawd-1932.