Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Diefenbach

167 F. 39, 92 C.C.A. 501, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4321
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 2, 1909
DocketNo. 1,797
StatusPublished

This text of 167 F. 39 (Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Diefenbach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Diefenbach, 167 F. 39, 92 C.C.A. 501, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4321 (5th Cir. 1909).

Opinion

PARDEE, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit brought by A. J. Diefenbach against the Texas & Pacific Railway Company for damage resulting from an' alleged illegal arrest and assault committed on Diefenbach by the defendant and its agents while Diefenbach was a passenger traveling on a freight train, in care of stock. John Doran, A. E. Buck, and D. N. Martin each brought suit in his own behalf against the same defendant for damages growing out of the same transaction. By agreement of all the parties, the four suits were tried together before the same jury, and one record presents the four cases in this court.

On November 26, 1906, these parties, together with Charles Mulner and William Corrigan, were at Shreveport, La., in charge of a lot of 14 horses which were to be shipped from Shreveport to Dallas. Eight of these horses belonged to W. O. Foote, and were in charge of A. J. Diefenbach, Charles Mulner, and William Corrigan. Four of the horses were owned by George R. King, and were in charge of John Doran and D. N. Martin. Two of the .horses belonged to A. E. Buck, and he had charge of them. The 14 horses were loaded in one car at Shreveport, and the six men boarded the car to travel with the horses. Diefenbach, Doran, and Martin had transportation; Buck, Mulner, and Corrigan did not. The railroad agent at Shreveport objected to any person going in the car who did not have transportation. After considerable discussion, more or less intemperate and heated, it was finally arranged that Buck, Mulner, and Corrigan should be allowed to go in the car with the others to Reisor, a station eight miles out from Shreveport, without tickets, on the promise that they would procure tickets at Reisor. Reisor is a station on the main line of the Texas & Pacific Railway, about 8 or 10 miles out from Shreveport, and trains traveling from New Orleans to Dallas pass through Reisor, but do not go to Shreveport. Cars are brought from Shreveport out to Reisor, and return by a switch engine stationed in Shreve[41]*41port. On the above understanding that the three parties should obtain tickets at Reisor, they were carried to that station by the switch engine from Shreveport, and the car was left there, to be carried on to Marshall and .Dallas by Ihe through freight on the main line, which was due to leave there that same night, the car having left Shreveport for Reisor at about 7 o’clock, and the train arrived at Reisor some time between 10 and 11 o’clock the same evening.

The three parties did not obtain tickets at Reisor. Diefenbach and Ruck swore that they were asleep and were not wakened up at that place. Martin says that every one was asleep when they reached Reisor. He says:

“I didn’t know when we got to Iteisor until we -were about to pull out from there. At. Iteisor, in coupling the cars, there seemed to be some difficulty in making the coupling; they bumped the cars several limes pretty hard, and that woke me up. I opened the door and aslcod the man what was the trouble, and lie said, ‘Nothing, only we are picking you up to take you to Marshall.’ That is the first 1 knew where we were. The next time I woke ui>. some one was hammering on the door at Marshall.”

Doran testifies;

. “I don’t know whether we ever got to Iteisor. I wasn’t wakened by any one; newer saw a conductor or anybody.”

On the other hand, Kimbrough, the engineer who pulled the car over from Shreveport to Reisor, says:

“I saw the parties after we got to Reisor; I can’t tell how many 1 saw; when I got to Reisor I notified them we were at Iteisor. At Reisor we pulled up on the main line and backed down into the yard to set our train out, and when I shoved down there, after 1 put my train away there, I went to the door and notified them wo were at Reisor, and they could get off and provide themselves with tickets. Í think, when I shoved down, the side door was open or partially open. When I walked up that way, as well as I remember, they were at the door already; I can’t tell you how many were at the door. I saw more than one; I don’t recognize any of them I saw there, except the largo man over by the wall there (Mr. Martin); I saw him at Reisor. I just remarked to him that that was Reisor, and they could get out and buy tickets.”

Mr. Jenkins, conductor on defendant’s railway at the time and place, says that he was advised from Marshall that there were a lot of men on the car from Shreveport that were not provided with tickets, and was directed to see that they had first-class transportation before moving the car. He says:

“When I got these orders I went back to the car while the engine was taking coni and rapped a few times. I rapped on the south side of the car— the east end of the south side. * * * I rapped on Ihe door several times before 1 could get any answer whatever. Finally the door was opened about that far (indicating), but., before the door was opened, he asked who it was— the man inside asked who it was — and I told him I was the conductor, and we were picking up cars and wanted to see his transportation; then he opened the door a very small space — I couldn’t tell the man to save my life — and ¡landed out two contracts. I looked at the contracts and saw they were all right, and I told him I understood there were a lot of men in there that had no transportation, and one of them remarked. ‘By Uod, if there is anybody else in here, 1 don’t know anything about it,’ and slammed the door. * * ® I then tried all around to get in, and no one would lot me in at all. I tried both ends of the car. I tried on the south side at both. [42]*42ends; I was about that ear some five or eight minutes trying to get in— something iike that. I went and told the dispatcher I was unable to get in, and he told me to bring the car on to Marshall. I had received instructions to see that they had transportation. I didn’t receive instructions to break in the car door or anything like that. I never got admittance to the west end of the car. I knocked on. the door and tried to get admittance. I made a considerable alarm on the door. I knocked on the door with my knucks. X asked them to open the doors, and received no response at all.”

J. C. Meade testifies that he, with the conductor, Jenkins—

“went down with a Shreveport car. As soon as we arrived at Reisor the conductor went to the office to get his waybills to see what cars %vent, and came on back, and rapped on the door quite a little while before any one came to the door. He asked for transportation, I believe, for the parties in charge of this car. He rapped on the door quite a little while before anybody came and opened the door. Finally he got the door partly opened, and was handed out some papers — I suppose contracts; looked something like that — and he looked over them and gave them back to them. He shut the door, and he went on and got the numbers. I generally have to go with him to get the numbers. • * * * He went to the office and got his hills, and during that time he was instructed that there were some other parties in the car, or something like that, and we went on back and he rapped on. the door again, and the party inside wanted to know what he wanted, and he says he wanted their transportation — of the other parties in the car — and they made some sort of remark I didn’t understand, like ‘if there was anybody in there it was their business,’ or something similar, and they wouldn’t open the ear any more. I didn’t hear them say they wouldn’t open it; they said, if there was anybody in there, it was their business.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 F. 39, 92 C.C.A. 501, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 4321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-p-ry-co-v-diefenbach-ca5-1909.