Wilkes v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.

198 N.W. 44, 197 Iowa 832, 36 A.L.R. 1012, 1924 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 758
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 1, 1924
StatusPublished

This text of 198 N.W. 44 (Wilkes v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilkes v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co., 198 N.W. 44, 197 Iowa 832, 36 A.L.R. 1012, 1924 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 758 (iowa 1924).

Opinion

Vermilion, J.

The petition alleged, in substance, that the plaintiff purchased from the defendant a first-class railroad ticket, for passage from Iowa City to Oxford, stations in Iowa on defendant’s line of railroad, and immediately thereafter, with the knowledge and consent of defendant, entered and be[833]*833came a passenger upon one of defendant’s trains at Iowa City, for the purpose of being transported to Oxford; that he presented the ticket to defendant’s train conductor, who took it up and punched it; that thereafter, and after the train had proceeded a considerable distance from Iowa City, the defendant wrongfully, unlawfully, and maliciously expelled and ejected plaintiff from the train. Plaintiff’s freedom from contributory negligence is alleged. The place of his ejectment was described, and damages, both actual and exemplary, were claimed.

The defendant answered by a general denial, and alleged that the plaintiff boarded a through train, that, according to the schedules of the defendant, did not stop at Oxford; that such through train preceded another train that did stop at Oxford. It denied that plaintiff boarded the train with the knowledge or consent of the defendant, and alleged that “it is the invariable custom of defendant to have a brakeman or other member of the train crew in charge of the operation of its trains at such points of the train where passengers are permitted to board, and such employees are there for the purpose of answering inquiries by intended passengers, ’ ’ and that, if plaintiff did not know that the train he boarded did not stop at Oxford, he could have ascertained the fact from defendant’s agent at Iowa City or from any member of the train crew in charge of the train; that, upon the presentation of plaintiff’s ticket, the conductor immediately informed plaintiff that the train did not stop at Oxford, and stopped the train, so that plaintiff could alight and take the later local train.

By way of reply, plaintiff denied any knowledge of the train schedules on defendant’s road, or any knowledge that the train he boarded did not stop at Oxford, and alleged that he inquired of defendant’s ticket agent at Iowa City if he could get a train to Oxford which would enable him to transact his business there and return to Iowa City in the evening; that the ticket agent told him that such a train would arrive in a few minutes, and he thereupon purchased a ticket from Iowa City to Oxford; that, in a few minutes, a train arrived, going in the direction of Oxford, and plaintiff went to the point where passengers were being received on the train; that a brakeman was stationed there, who asked plaintiff where he was going; that [834]*834plaintiff replied that be was going to Oxford, and thereupon the brakeman permitted plaintiff to board the train and become a passenger thereon: and it was alleged that defendant was thereby estopped to assert that such train did not stop at Oxford.

On the trial, the evidence on behalf of plaintiff tended to show that the plaintiff was a traveling salesman, and that, on the afternoon of the day in question, he went to defendant’s ticket agent at its station in Iowa City, and asked the agent if there would be a train on which he could go to Oxford that afternoon, so that he could work Oxford and get back to Iowa City for the night, as he wanted to go out on 'another train leaving Iowa City next morning; that the agent said there would be a train along in a little bit, and that plaintiff handed him the money, and he gave plaintiff a ticket to Oxford; that, in about thirty minutes, a train arrived,, headed in the direction of Oxford, and plaintiff followed the crowd out on the platform, and went with others to the rear door of the smoking car, where there was a brakeman standing at the steps, with his hand on the rail; that the brakeman asked plaintiff, “Where tof” and plaih-tiff replied, “Oxford,” whereupon the brakeman stepped back, and plaintiff boarded the train, and sat down; that, after the train left the station, the conductor passed through the ear, 'taking up tickets, and plaintiff gave him the ticket he had purchased of the agent at Iowa City, and the conductor punched the ticket and kept it, and passed on one or two seats, punching other tickets; that he then came back to plaintiff, and asked, “Where are you°going?” that plaintiff said, “Oxford, Iowa,” and the conductor replied, “Not on this train, you are not;” that plaintiff informed the conductor that he hád a ticket to Oxford which the conductor had taken up, and that he had told the brakeman where he was going, and the latter let him get on the train; that the brakeman denied this; that the conductor told, plaintiff that the train did not stop at Oxford, and, in the presence of other passengers, repeatedly ordered plaintiff to ‘ ‘cut out this talk and get off here, ’ ’ and stopped the train at a point some two miles from Iowa City, and required the plaintiff to alight. We do not refer to all the circumstances attending plaintiff’s ejectment, or the situation in which he was placed [835]*835on alighting, as they are not material to the question presented.

At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, the court sustained a motion on behalf of the defendant for a directed verdict in its favor. This ruling presents the only question on this appeal.

It is the contention of the appellee that the petition alleged a cause of action in tort for the wrongful ejection of plaintiff from the train, and that the evidence failed to establish a wrongful ejectment, but showed, at most, only a breach of the contract evidenced by the plaintiff’s ticket; that plaintiff could, in any event, recover only for a breach of contract, and could not recover for that in this action.

There is a lack of uniformity in the holding of the courts as to the situation and rights of one who, holding a ticket entitling him to be carried to a particular station, is directed by an agent of the carrier to take a train that does not stop at that station, and, upon doing so, is by the conductor ejected from the train. It is well settled that, in the absence- of statutory regulation, a railway company has a right to adopt a schedule for the operation of its trains according to which certain trains do not stop at all stations on its line. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Gants, 38 Kans. 608 (17 Pac. 54); Noble v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 4 Okla. 534 (46 Pac. 483); Black v. Atlantic C. L. R. Co., 82 S. C. 478 (64 S. E. 418); White v. Evansville & T. H. R. Co., 133 Ind. 480 (33 N. E. 273); Chicago, St. L. & P. R. Co. v. Bills, 104 Ind. 13 (3 N. E. 611).

It is also an established rule that it is the duty of one about to board a train to inform himself whether, according to the schedule under which it is operated, it stops at the station to which he wishes to go, and that, if he does not do so, and fails to avail himself of the means at hand to ascertain that fact, and gets upon a train that does not stop at the station to which he is going, he is wrongfully upon the train. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Gants, supra; Usher v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 71 Kans. 375 (80 Pac. 956); Noble v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., supra; Duling v. Philadelphia, W. & B. R. Co., 66 Md. 120 (6 Atl. 592); Black v. Atlantic C. L. R. Co., supra; Chicago, St. L. & P. R. Co. v. Bills, supra.

It has been held that the conductor of a train, when presented with a ticket entitling one to be carried to a station at [836]

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Bluebook (online)
198 N.W. 44, 197 Iowa 832, 36 A.L.R. 1012, 1924 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 758, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilkes-v-chicago-rock-island-pacific-railway-co-iowa-1924.