St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Co. v. Brown

35 S.W. 225, 62 Ark. 254, 1896 Ark. LEXIS 165
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 11, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 35 S.W. 225 (St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Co. v. Brown, 35 S.W. 225, 62 Ark. 254, 1896 Ark. LEXIS 165 (Ark. 1896).

Opinion

Bunn, C. J.

This suit was instituted in the Sebastian circuit court, Fort Smith district, and, having progressed to a certain point, plaintiff, Drura Brown, suffered judgment of nonsuit, and subsequently renewed the suit against the defendant company, which resulted in judgment in her favor in the sum of three hundred and seventy-five dollars, and the defendant company appealed to this court.

The plaintiff, Drura Brown, and her husband, referred to in the record as Dr. Brown, resided at Vinita, in the Indian Territory, and only a short distance from the city of Fort Smith; and on 22d December, 1892, each purchased at Fort Smith, from defendant’s agent, a round-trip ticket over its railroad and connecting lines to and from Memphis, Tennessee. This ticket was conditional to the extent that it was stipulated thereon that the holder thereof, in order to make the return part good, should identify herself or himself, as the case might be, by signing her or his name, and having the ticket stamped by the agent of the company, at a point named between the punch marks thereon made.

Plaintiff and her husband were on their return, and, by the connecting railway, reached defendant’s road at Nichols, in Green county, in the state of Missouri, without having her ticket signed as aforesaid, and stamped by an agent of the connecting road over which she had traveled on- her said return. From Nichols station, defendant’s road runs south to the Arkansas line, thence through the counties of Benton, Washington, Crawford and Sebastian in this state, and thence southerly, through the Indian Territory, to the city of Paris, in the state of Texas. Plaintiff and her husband boarded one of the coaches of defendant’s passenger train going south, at Nichols station, sometime before daylight on the 1st day of January, 1893; and, having gone a short distance (about which the evidence is conflicting), the conductor demanded, and was shown, plaintiff’s said ticket, and, observing that the same had not been signed and stamped as required, informed plaintiff that it was worthless, and, after some conversation with her, the nature of which is in dispute, informed plaintiff that she must get off at once, and immediately stopped the the train, and escorting her to the door and platform, followed by her husband, caused her to alight from the steps of the coach to the ground, in a manner which is also in dispute. At the time it was very cold and dark, and there is testimony showing that the ground was covered with snow or sleet, or both. There is testimony tending to show that the trainmen who assisted her to alight from the train did so in a rude and rough manner, jerking her down, so that she was hurt and bruised, and also that the place on which she was thus caused to alight was an embankment or “dump,” and sloped outward, and was difficult to stand upon under the circumstances. There was testimony just to the contrary of this, the plaintiff testifying the one way, and the trainmen the other, as to the place at which and the manner in which she was put off. There was evidence also pro and con as to the manner in which plaintiff was treated by the conductor from the time he examined the ticket until she was ejected from the coach, her evidence being to the effect that his manner, words, and actions toward her were rude, rough, and profane; and that on the part of defendant that they were just to the contrary. The witnesses on the part of plaintiff testified that the train had gone a mile and a half, more or less, from the depot; and those on the part of the defendant, that it had gone but a short distance from the depot, and where its lights were still in plain view. There was evidence that, by reason of the plaintiff’s exposure to the inclemency of the weather, and by reason of her having to walk a long distance from the point where she was put off to the first house near the road, there being no house observable at or near the place at which she was put off the train, she contracted a severe cold, producing pneumonia; so that she was confined to her bed for a long period after she arrived at her home, and also that she suffered much from rheumatism produced by such exposure.

when objection to w’awed?6 Admissibility -of opinion of non-expert.

The first contention we will notice is that which arose from the admission by the court of evidence to the effect that plaintiff had rheumatism sometime before she was put off the train and sometime afterwards. The testimony was not admissible, but the defendant contends that it was admitted, while the plaintiff contends that it was not admitted. The record shows that evidence to that effect was given, and that the defendant objected. The question was taken under advisement, but was never finally disposed of by the court, and seems to have been overlooked. We think defendant should have called the court’s attention to it, and asked a ruling on its motion to exclude, and, failing to do so, waived its objection. More likely still, the evidence was never considered by the jury, as it seems to have been taken under advisement in their presence.

It was also objected by defendant, that the witness ** Humphreys, who was a passenger in the coach at the time, not having shown himself to be an expert judge of the time, speed, and distance at which trains may be running, or have run, on any given occasion, when the circumstances are such that he cannot observe external objects, was incompetent to testify as to the distance the train had gone from the station to where it was stopped and the plaintiff put off. We do not think this objection is tenable. It may be true that people accustomed to travel much on trains, in the night as well as in the day time, as trainmen are accustomed to do, are better and more accurate judges of such matters than those who travel on trains only occasionally, as does the average passenger; and yet the difference is only in degree at last, and, the subject-matter being more or less of common knowledge, we cannot say that one is incompetent to testify because he is not an expert. His testimony may not be entitled to as much weight as that of the experienced man, but that is all that can be said against it, and that of course is a question for the jury.

Inability of carrier for rude expulsion of passenger. Admissibility of proof of conductor’s bad temper.

It may and must be admitted that the unstamped ticket which plaintiff presented to the conductor in payment of her fare was, in its then shape, void, and did not authorize her to ride on the defendant’s cars; and her tender of the same in payment of her fare, instead of money, may be considered as a refusal to pay her fare; and, therefore, that the conductor, under the provisions of the Missouri statute, had a right to put her and her baggage off the car, near any depot or dwelling house; and yet, in doing so, he should have used no more force than was necessary, and, irrespective of any particular statute, should not have ejected her in a rude, insulting, or rough manner. Whether this was done in this particular instance was also a matter for the consideration of the jury, from the evidence relating thereto.

It is objected that the evidence adduced by the plaintiff to show the temper of the conductor on re-entering the coach after ejecting plaintiff should not have been admitted. We cannot see the reason in this objection.

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Bluebook (online)
35 S.W. 225, 62 Ark. 254, 1896 Ark. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-san-francisco-railway-co-v-brown-ark-1896.