The Pullman Company v. Anderson, Administrator

172 S.W.2d 431, 205 Ark. 1056, 1943 Ark. LEXIS 287
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 21, 1943
Docket4-7103
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 172 S.W.2d 431 (The Pullman Company v. Anderson, Administrator) 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
The Pullman Company v. Anderson, Administrator, 172 S.W.2d 431, 205 Ark. 1056, 1943 Ark. LEXIS 287 (Ark. 1943).

Opinion

Smith, J.

Appellee, as administrator of the estate of Pryor Townsend, recovered judgment for $1,000 against appellant, The Pullman Company, for the breach of an alleged contract to transport the deceased Townsend as a passenger in one of its sleeping cars from Pharr, Texas, to Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

There are conflicts in the testimony which cannot be reconciled, but the plaintiff’s case rests upon the testimony of his wife, who was the sister of the deceased, and is to the following effect. She lived near Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Her brother, the deceased, lived in Pharr, Texas. Sometime in January,’1942, deceased suffered a stroke and was at the same time suffering from a rupture. She went to Texas for the purpose of bringing her brother to her home and, on Wednesday, January 21, applied to the railroad station agent at Pharr, Texas, for transportation. She explained very particularly that she wished one first-class passenger ticket for her brother, which she was required to buy to get a sleeping car ticket for him, but tha«fc she wanted only a day coach ticket for herself. The station agent told her he had prepared tickets as requested, and these were given her, and she paid the fares demanded, which she testified totaled between $42 and $43.

She and her brother boarded the train at Pharr. He was furnished a lower berth in the sleeping car from Pharr to San Antonio, and she rode in the day coach, but was allowed to visit her brother in the sleeper. The train left Pharr about 8:00 p. m. and arrived in San Antonio the following morning. When they arrived at San Antonio, her brother was placed in a wheel chair and taken by a red cap into the station for breakfast. After eating, her brother was returned in the chair to the train. A different conductor was in charge of the sleeper. She presented the tickets purchased at Pharr and was refused admission to the sleeper because she had no sleeping car ticket from San Antonio to her destination. She returned to the station and interviewed the ticket agent who referred her back to the sleeping car conductor. She declined to pay the conductor the additional fare which he demanded, that is the sleeping car fare from San Antonio to Arkadelphia. There is a conflict in the testimony as to whether she had the amount of money necessary for that purpose, but there is no conflict as to her having the opportunity to pay the additional fare, and it was admitted that a lower berth would have been furnished had this additional fare been paid.

Her brother stood the trip well from Pharr to San Antonio. When denied sleeping car transportation from San Antonio to her destination, she went with her brother into the day coach where he soon became ill and liis condition grew progressively worse and his suffering was very great until he finally became unconscious, and lie had to be carried from the train when he arrived at Arkadelphia, and he died the following day. No complaint is made that the verdict is excessive, if there is liability, as the sick man was compelled to'ride a distance of some six or seven hundred miles in an upright position, and his rupture rapidly enlarged during this time.

Mrs. Henderson testified that the tickets which she purchased at Pharr were placed in an envelope which she put in her purse, and that they were not removed therefrom except to exhibit them to the conductors. She liad been told that she had lower berth number 2 in car 1 from Pharr to San Antonio, and lower berth number 4 in another ear from San Antonio to Arkadelphia, but an examination of her sleeping car ticket, which was offered in evidence, would have disclosed that she had no ticket for such transportation beyond San Antonio.

The traffic rates, or schedule of the fares, here in question as approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission, were offered in evidence, and are as follows:

First Class Railroad Ticket from Pharr to Arkadelphia, $22.47, a Coach Ticket from Pharr to Arkadelphia, $14.99, a Lower Berth from Pharr to San Antonio, $2.65, Federal Transportation Tax $2. These items total $42.11, aucl Mrs. Anderson testified that she paid for her tickets between $42 and $43. The fact is, therefore, undisputed that Mrs. Anderson did not pay Pullman fare from San Antonio to Arkadelphia, and the fact is also undisputed that she did not receive a Pullman ticket for her brother from San Antonio to Arkadelphia.

For the affirmance of the judgment here appealed from appellee says that this case is governed by the rules of law laid down in Hot Springs R. Co. v. Deloney, 65 Ark. 177, 45 S. W. 351, 67 Am. St. Rep. 913, and Pullman Co. v. Walton, 152 Ark. 633, 239 S. W. 385, 23 A. L. R. 1298.

The facts in the first of these eases were that the plaintiff purchased tickets for himself and his brother for passage for both from Hot Springs to Atkins, Arkansas, and that, as the opinion states, “paid the full and regular fare therefor,-’ ’ but through an error in making up the tickets they were ejected from the train before completing their trip, in fact were refused transpoi’tation- soon after they began their trip. The railroad company was held liable for the error of the ticket agent in not delivering the proper tickets for which the passengers paid the full and correct fare.

In the Walton case, supra, the facts were that a passenger accompanied his brother, who was in ill health, from a point in Colorado to their home in Clarksville, Arkansas. Sleeping car accommodations were obtained from Pueblo, Colorado, to Kansas City, and reservations were secured at Pueblo by wire from Kansas City for sleeping car accommodations to Clarksville.When they reached Kansas City, they applied.for the-reservation previously obtained. The reservation called for lower berths 7 and 8 in car number 9, but they were told car number 9 would not go out but that ear number 8 would go and they were sold lower berths number 4 and 5 In car number 8. They were refused' admission to car number 8 on the ground that the berths for which their tickets called had already been sold and were occupied. The conductor declined to furnish even an upper berth for the invalid for the reason that all the berths had been sold and were occupied. Being uuable to get berths, Walton and his brother rode in the day coach from Kansas City to Clarksville to the great discomfort and injury of the invalid passenger.

It was there said that there was no question about the right of the sleeping car company to require the purchase and exhibition of tickets and to promulgate and enforce rules with respect to the operation of its cars, but that this right and its exercise would not absolve the company from liability for the negligence of its servants in refusing to furnish accommodations in accordance with tickets purchased by patrons.

It will be observed that there is a distinction, and one which we think is controlling, between the two cases just referred to and the instant case, and that is that in those cases it was assumed that the passengers had purchased tickets entitling them to transportation which was not furnished, while here the passenger did not purchase or pay for the transportation which was demanded, nor did she offer to do so although that opportunity was afforded at San Antonio.

The jury, no doubt, found, and the testimony supports the finding, that Mrs.

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172 S.W.2d 431, 205 Ark. 1056, 1943 Ark. LEXIS 287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-pullman-company-v-anderson-administrator-ark-1943.