Woodruff Sleeping & Parlor Coach Co. v. Diehl

84 Ind. 474
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1882
DocketNo. 8467
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 84 Ind. 474 (Woodruff Sleeping & Parlor Coach Co. v. Diehl) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodruff Sleeping & Parlor Coach Co. v. Diehl, 84 Ind. 474 (Ind. 1882).

Opinion

Howk, J.

In this case the appellee, the plaintiff below, alleged in substance, in his complaint, that on the night of the 24th day of July, 1876, the appellant was the owner of a certain car, running upon the line of railroad between the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and the city of Cleveland, Ohio, which car 'was used by appellant as a sleeping or lodging car for the lodging of travellers for a specific reward, to be paid the appellant by such travellers as should use the same, being passengers upon the said railroad ; that the appellant, so undertaking to provide lodging for travellers, was bound to keep the goods and chattels brought by such travellers into the said car safely and without diminution or loss; that upon the day and year last named, being a passenger upon the line of said railroad, the appellee contracted with the appellant for lodging upon its car for the 'night, and for $2 then and there paid to it was received into the said car and therein was furnished with lodging by the appellant; that the appellee had with him, among other things, goods, chattels and money necessary and proper to be carried by him for his comfort, to wit: In currency the sum of $111.50, .one gold watch of the value of $172, and one gold chain and locket of the value of $50; that during the night the appellee so lodged in the place so provided by appellant, and while he so lodged and abided with the appellant as aforesaid, the appellant and its servants so carelessly and negligently conducted and behaved themselves in not keeping proper care and watch, and in not furnishing sleeping places which could be securely fastened, and in being otherwise careless and negligent, that by and through the said carelessness, negligence and default of the appellant and its servants in that behalf, the said goods and chattels and money were wrongfully and unjustly taken and carried away from the appellee by some person or persons to him unknown, and were and since had been wholly lost to him, and all without any fault or negligence whatever on the part of the appellee. Wherefore, etc.

The cause was put at issue and tried by tbe court at special [476]*476term; and, at the request of the parties, the court made a special finding of the facts, and thereon stated its conclusions of law in favor of the appellee. To the third, and fourth conclusions of law the appellant severally excepted, for that neither was authorized nor warranted by the facts specially found, and neither was the law applicable to the facts so found, to be true. The court rendered judgment for the appellee in accordance with its conclusions of law; and, on appeal, this judg~ ment was in all things affirmed by the court in general term.

From this judgment of affirmance this appeal is prosecuted ; and by a proper assignment of error here the appellant has brought the errors assigned by it in general term before this court. In general term the appellant assigned as errors the following decisions of the court at special term:

1. In overruling its demurrer'to appellee’s complaint;

2. In sustaining a demurrer to the second paragraph of its answer;

3. ^In the third conclusion of law upon the facts specially found;

4. In the fourth conclusion of law upon the special finding of facts;

5. In rendering judgment against the appellant upon the facts found, for that' on said, facts, and the first and second conclusions of law, the judgment should have been for the appellant; and,

6. In overruling the appellant’s motion for a new trial.

In the conclusion of their brief of this cause the learned counsel of the appellant say:

“We submit:
“ 1. That the demurrer to the complaint in this case should have been sustained;
“ 2. That, on the facts found by the court, the law is with the appellant; and,
“ 3. That the motion for a new trial on the evidence should have been allowed.”

It is not claimed, however, by the appellant’s counsel in [477]*477.argument, that the court’s special finding of facts is not .sustained by sufficient evidence. The facts found by the court are substantially the same as those alleged in the complaint. The important and controlling question for decision in this case is this: Upon the facts found by the court, is the appellant, the sleeping car company, liable to the appellee in damages for the value of the personal goods lost by or stolen from him while he was an occupant of the berth or place assigned to him by appellant in its sleeping car ? This is the ■only question discussed by counsel on either side; and, therefore, it is the only question we are required to consider and •decide.

The court’s special finding of facts and conclusions of law were, in substance, as follows:

“Having been requested by the parties, before entering ■upon the trial of this cause, to render a special finding of the facts and my conclusions of law thereon, I find the following to be the material facts:
“On the 24th day of July, 1876, the defendant was the • owner of and engaged in operating a line of coaches, adapted ¡and used for the lodgement of travellers by night over the route of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad Company, between Indianapolis, Ind., and Cleveland, Ohio. The plaintiff desired to travel to the latter city •over said route, holding the pass of the railway company for that purpose. • On the evening of the day named he entered the coach of the defendant attached to the rear of the company’s train at the depot in Indianapolis, purchased of the defendant’s conductor in charge a berth in the coach, and paid therefor $2, the sum demanded for the use of the same ■during the transit from Indianapolis to Cleveland. .The coach was divided in the center lengthwise by an aisle, and on each side was separated into sections, each of which contained two berths, one being the upper and one the lower, and so called. The plaintiff’s berth was the upper one on the south side, and in the third section from the rear. The [478]*478sections were separated at each end by a cloth partition hung by a cord upon a hook and at right angles with the aisle, and facing the latter were curtains, which were divided in the middle, and which hung down to the floor from a steel rod placed lengthwise in front of the section. The plaintiff retired for sleep about ten o’clock, when the coach was a number of miles on its way, and placed his money, his watch valued at $172, and his chain valued at $50, in his vest. He folded the latter up, placed it under his pillow, and pulled it down so that his shoulder rested upon it, and was speedily .asleep. He had $311.50 in money, of which he placed $100 in the inside pocket of the vest, and $11.50 was left in a lower outside pocket therein. The $100 was in his pocketbook, together with various passes and tickets over divers-railroads. He did not offer to deliver this property to the conductor or any other servant of the defendant. He wakened in the morning about six o’clock, not having been awake in the interval, and reached Cleveland by that train at seven A. M.

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Bluebook (online)
84 Ind. 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodruff-sleeping-parlor-coach-co-v-diehl-ind-1882.