Wright v. California Central Railway Co.

Belcher, C. C. This action was brought to recover damages for being put off a railroad car. The court below granted a nonsuit, and the plaintiff appealed from the judgment and an order denying him a new trial. The material facts are as follows:—

On the 26th of July, 1887, the plaintiff purchased a round-trip ticket on defendant’s railroad from Los Angeles to San Diego and back. With other passengers he went into what is called a “chair-car,” and sat down, no one informing him that the car was a special one. The train started, and when a few miles out the conductor went into the car and took up the part of plaintiff’s ticket which was from Los Angeles to San Diego, and gave back the return portion thereof. He then collected the tickets from other passengers in the car, and having done so went back to plaintiff and demanded twenty-five cents more for the privilege of sitting in that car. Plaintiff refused to pay the extra charge, and asked the conductor if he did not furnish seats to sit ill. The conductor replied: “Yes; but not in this car; this is a chair-car; you can take a seat in the other car.” Plaintiff said he had a first-class ticket, and didn’t propose to take a seat in the other car. The conductor called his attention to “ a card up in the car stating terms and so forth,” and said it was the regulation of the company. He explained why [363]the twenty-five cents was an extra 'charge,—said it was a chair-car, and it was the rule. The conductor went to plaintiff three or four times and asked him if he would pay the two bits or go into the other car, and said if he didn’t do so, “we will put you out, we will put you in.” Plaintiff persistently refused to comply with the conductor’s request, saying he “ did n’t care for the two bits, but it was the principle of the thing.” When the train reached a station called Azusa, the conductor and another man went up to plaintiff, and taking him by the -arms, led him to the front door of" the car, where he caught hold of the iron railing and resisted with all his might. They tried to put him into the car immediately in front of the chair-car. That car was a first-class passenger car, and he could have gone into it and continued his trip there if he had wished to do so. After he was on the ground the men invited him to go into the car, but he refused, preferring to leave the train and abandon his journey. The conductor did not return or offer to return to him his ticket or any money in lieu thereof.

Plaintiff claims that he was wrongfully made to leave the chair-car; that he was ruptured and seriously injured, while standing on the platform and holding on to-the railing of that car, by the efforts to put him into the other car; and that he suffered great mental and bodily distress in consequence of the wrongful acts of defendants, and is entitled to demand and receive therefor damages in the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.