Tarr v. Oregon Short Line R. R.

93 P. 957, 14 Idaho 192, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 17
Idaho Supreme Court·Decided January 31, 1908·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

AILSHIE, C. J.

This is an appeal from the judgment and order denying a motion for a new trial. The appellant recovered judgment in the lower court against the defendant for the sum of $1,000 damages on account of the agents and employees of the defendant company wrongfully and unlawfully ejecting him from one of its railway trains. The respondent, Jacob E. Tarr, was, on the 23d day of December, 1905, residing with his family at Shelley, Idaho, and on the evening of that day purchased from the ticket agent at that place three tickets to Pocatello. It seems that the railway company had no night agent at Shelley, and that it was the practice of the company to take on baggage without the same being checked, on the passenger’s pointing out his baggage to the conductor or brakeman or other employee of the com[198] pany. About 2 o’clock on the morning of the 24th, the south-bound passenger arrived at the station where respondent, together with his wife and daughter, was waiting to board the train. When the train stopped, the respondent pointed out to the conductor and brakeman a trunk and roll of bedding he had on the' platform, and told them that he wanted to take that baggage with him to Pocatello. When the respondent asked them to put the baggage on board, they made some profane remarks concerning it, but put the trunk on the baggage-car and left the roll of bedding. No question is raised here concerning the roll of bedding that was left on the platform. Respondent helped his wife and daughter on the train. After the train pulled out, the conductor came through taking up tickets and collecting fare, and when he came to respondent, the respondent gave him one ticket and told him that he had a trunk on board for which he wanted a baggage cheek. He also told the conductor that when he got his check for his trunk, he would give him the other two tickets. The conductor insisted on his surrendering up the tickets, but the respondent declined to do so. This demand for the tickets was made two or three times, the conductor telling him that if he did not surrender them he would put him off the train. Finally, when the train was about a mile-out of the station of Blackfoot, the conductor came to respondent and told him if he did not surrender the tickets, he was going to put him off. Respondent replied that he would not do so unless the conductor gave him a check for his trunk. Thereupon the conductor called the brakeman and the two of them proceeded to eject the respondent from the train. Before they had completely ejected him, he told the conductor that he would not give up the tickets, but that if he would let him ride to Pocatello, he would pay the fare in cash. They disregarded this offer, however, and put him off the train. It seems to be generally agreed by all the witnesses that the train did not fully stop but “slowed up,” as the witnesses put it. As the last coach passed, respondent swung onto the platform, and as he did so, he encountered the brakeman, who kicked him off, and in his endeavor to do [199] ■so, injured and bruised respondent’s bands and dislocated a, thumb. When he was kicked off the train he was either struck by the brakeman one blow on the back over the lungs -and another over the kidneys, which made bad bruises, or .else he received those injuries when he fell from the moving train. Eespondent was under the care of a physician for a couple of weeks, and the physician testified that he had a bad bruise over his lung, and also over his kidneys, and that he had incipient pneumonia, which might have been caused by the blow over the lungs.

The respondent contends that under the provisions of sec. .2674, he was entitled to demand and receive a cheek for his ■ baggage before surrendering his transportation, and that he was entitled to remain on appellant’s train until such time as he received a check for his baggage, or until he reached his destination. Appellant, on the other hand, contends that .while the company would have been liable for the penalty prescribed in sec. 2674 for failing and neglecting to furnish the baggage cheek, notwithstanding that, respondent was not •entitled to ride on the train without paying his fare or surrendering up his ticket. Sec. 2674 provides as follows:

“A check must be affixed to every package or parcel of baggage when taken for transportation by any agent or employee of a railroad corporation, and a duplicate thereof given to the passenger or person delivering the same in his behalf; And if such check is refused on demand, the railroad corporation must pay to such passenger the sum of twenty dollars to be recovered in an action for damages; and no fare or toll must be collected or received from such passenger, and if such passenger has paid his fare, the same must be returned by the conductor in charge of the train; and on producing the check, if his baggage is not delivered to him by the agent or employee of the railroad corporation, he may recover the value thereof from the corporation.”

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Tarr v. Oregon Short Line R. R., 93 P. 957, 14 Idaho 192, 1908 Ida. LEXIS 17 (Idaho 1908).

93 P. 957 (Tarr v. Oregon Short Line R. R.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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