Wabash R. v. Davidson

168 F.2d 300, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2045
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 24, 1948
DocketNo. 10606
StatusPublished

This text of 168 F.2d 300 (Wabash R. v. Davidson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wabash R. v. Davidson, 168 F.2d 300, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2045 (6th Cir. 1948).

Opinion

MILLER, Circuit Judge.

The appellee, Robert Davidson, recovered a judgment in the District Court for $10,-000 for personal injuries received while riding on a train being operated by the appellant. The appellant, in this appeal, makes the sole contention that Davidson was not a passenger on the train at the time of the accident

[302]*302Davidson was discharged from the Army on November 1, 1945 at Camp Grant, Illinois. He obtained a ticket for transportation to his home in Flint, Michigan over the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to Chicago and over the Grand Trunk Railroad from Chicago to Flint. He arrived in Chicago at the Union station at about 5:45 a. m. November 2, 1945, and transferred from the Union station to the Dearborn station for a connection on the Grand Trunk Railroad leaving for Flint at 7:00 a. m. After eating breakfast and telephoning his mother that he was coming in on the 7:00 o’clock train, he walked up town. He did not return to the Dear-born station until about 9:45 a. m., some time after the Grand Trunk connection for Flint had departed. He found out that the next Grand Trunk train for Flint was due to leave at 7:00 p. m. and thereupon he left the station to go up town to do some shopping and sight-seeing. He returned to the station about 1:00 p. m. where he “fell in with a bunch of fellows there that were just getting discharged.” He went with them across the street to a tavern. He spent several hours with his new friends, spent money freely, became intoxicated and noisy, was taken in charge by Military Police at the station, and was either released by them when it was discovered that he was a discharged soldier, or he climbed out a window in the Military Police booth where he had been placed without being observed by the soldier in charge, depending upon different versions of the testimony.

Appellee testified that after leaving the Military Police booth he had some conversation “with the fellows in the depot” and decided to take a different train out of Chicago and go to Detroit to visit his sister there before going on from Detroit to Flint; that he got into a line at some ticket window to change his ticket, and while in line he heard a Wabash train called, his impression from one of the fellows in the depot being that it was going to Detroit. However, there was no Wabash train out of the Dearborn station for Detroit, and the train which the appellee boarded a-few minutes later was bound for St. Louis, Missouri.

At this time in 194'5 convoys of soldiers were leaving the Dearborn station. A passenger agent of the Railroad would check the number of men in a convoy and the tickets. The soldier in charge would take the convoy to a special gate through which the passenger agent would go first followed in turn by the soldiers and with the soldier in charge in the rear. The convoy would follow the passenger agent to the car which had been assigned to it. The soldiers in the convoy were either counted as they passed through the gate or when they reached the car. The tickets were not inspected or called for at the gate, but were picked up on the train by the conductor from the soldier in charge. Other passengers on trains went through the regular passenger gate where their tickets would be inspected by the gate man, whose duties were not to permit any passenger to pass through the gate without a ticket for that train.

Appellee testified that upon hearing the. Wabash7 train called he got out of line at the ticket window, joined up with a convoy of soldiers who were to be transported on the train in question, filed through the gate with the soldiers without having to show a ticket, boarded the train with them and took a seat in the coach reserved for the soldiers in the convoy. There were no civilian passengers in this coach. Appellee had three hundred dollars in cash and testified that he intended to pay for his passage on the train. He also testified that very shortly thereafter he talked to someone in train uniform and to the soldier in charge of the convoy and learned that he was on a Wabash train going to Saint Louis rather than one going to Detroit, and that he would be let off at the first stop. He stated that he started forward to find out how far that stop would be, that when he was in the vestibule the train lurched and threw him out through an open vestibule ' door. The train ran over his right leg causingit to be amputated below the knee. He was 29 years of age and had been a professional dancer in civilian life.

At the close of all the evidence the appellant moved for a directed verdict which was overruled. The District Judge included in his instructions to the jury the fol[303]*303lowing special question authorized under Rule 49, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A following section 723c.

“Was Robert Davidson, plaintiff herein, on November 2, 1945, a passenger for hire on defendant’s train No. 21, leaving Dear-born Station, Chicago, Illinois, at approximately 4:50 P.M. of that day?” [73 F. Supp. 416, 417]

The jury found in the affirmative upon the special question submitted and returned a general verdict for the appellee, upon which judgment was entered. Appellant’s motion to set aside the verdict and to enter judgment non obstante was also overruled. This appeal followed.

Our ruling is controlled by the law of Illinois. Restatement, Conflict of Laws, § 378. It is clear that appellee has no cause of action unless the relation of passenger and carrier existed between him and the appellant. Merely riding on the train at the time of the accident, even though seated in a coach provided for passengers, is, by itself, not sufficient. Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. O’Keefe, 168 Ill. 115, 48 N.E. 294, 39 L.R.A. 148, 61 Am.St.Rep. 68; T. W. & W. R. R. Co. v. Beggs, 85 Ill. 80, 28 Am.Rep. 613; Metropolitan West Side R. W. Co. v. Sutherland, 139 Ill.App. 85; Harmon v. Jensen, 6 Cir., 176 F. 519. See also: Union Pacific Ry. Co. v. Nichols, 8 Kan. 505, 12 Am.Rep. 475; Way v. Chicago, R. O. & Pac., 64 Iowa 48, 19 N.W. 828, 52 Am.Rep. 431. The passenger carrier relation is a contract relation, which may be either express or implied from the circumstances. The carrier “holds itself out as ready to receive as passengers all persons who present themselves in a proper condition, and in a proper manner, at a proper place, to be carried.” Webster v. Fitchburg R. R., 161 Mass. 298, 37 N.E. 165, 166, 24 L.R.A. 521. A person can not force his way upon a train against the will of the carrier and thereby become a passenger. The acceptance of the carrier is needed. It does not necessarily follow that a person who boards a train, has been accepted, or will be accepted, by the carrier as a passenger. Liability may result from refusing to accept when it should accept, but in such cases the relation of carrier and passenger has not been created. Todd, Adm’x v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 274 Ill. 201, 113 N.E. 95, L.R.A. 1916F, 543. “If a person goes upon cars provided by the railroad company for the transportation of passengers with the purpose of carriage as a passenger with the consent, express or implied, of the railroad company, he is presumptively a passenger. 4 Elliott on R. R. § 1578. Both parties must enter into and be bound by the contract. The passenger may do this by putting himself into the care of the railroad company to be transported, and the company does it by expressly or impliedly receiving him and accepting him as a passenger.

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Related

Webster v. Fitchburg Railroad
37 N.E. 165 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1894)
Toledo, Wabash & Western Railway Co. v. Beggs
85 Ill. 80 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1877)
Illinois Central Railroad v. O'Keefe
39 L.R.A. 148 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1897)
Todd v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad
274 Ill. 201 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1916)
Way v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R'y Co.
19 N.W. 828 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1884)
Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Nichols
8 Kan. 505 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1871)
Davidson v. Wabash R.
73 F. Supp. 416 (E.D. Michigan, 1947)
Harmon v. Jensen
176 F. 519 (Sixth Circuit, 1909)
Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway Co. v. Sutherland
139 Ill. App. 85 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1908)

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Bluebook (online)
168 F.2d 300, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2045, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wabash-r-v-davidson-ca6-1948.