Kerrigan v. Southern Pacific Railroad

The Court. Action for damages for bodily injuries received by plaintiff through the alleged negligence of defendants while carrying plaintiff as a passenger on a stage-coach from Gilroy Hot Springs to Gilroy.

Both defendants answered, but at the trial the defendant corporation only appeared, and after the plaintiff closed his case, it moved for and obtained a nonsuit as to itself. The case was then given to the jury, who returned a verdict for plaintiff against defendant Paine. From the judgment of nonsuit plaintiff appeals.

The facts are as follows: On the several dates hereinafter mentioned, the respondent corporation owned and was operating a steam-railroad for the carriage of passengers and baggage between San José and Gilroy in either direction, and the defendant Paine was the owner of and operating a stage-line between Gilroy and Gilroy Hot Springs, for the carriage of passengers and baggage in either direction. On the 23d of June, 1885, the plaintiff purchased of the respondent a round-trip special excursion ticket from San José to Gilroy Hot Springs and return to San José, entitling him to transportation over the railway and stage-line above mentioned.

The ticket was in the form of a coupon ticket, and had three coupons attached to it. The first provided for one continuous passage from San José to Gilroy; the second for one passage from Gilroy to Gilroy Hot Springs; the third for one passage from Gilroy Hot Springs to Gilroy, and the main ticket for one continuous passage from Gilroy to San José.

Among other matters not material here, the ticket contained on its face the following: “Issued by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, acting for itself over its own line, and as agent for the line named in [250]the accompanying checks, but assuming no responsibility beyond its own line.....In consideration of this ticket being sold at a reduced price from the regular first-class rate, it is hereby understood and agreed upon by the purchaser that it will not be good for passage after October 31st of the year indicated by agent’s punch-mark in the margin, that it is not transferable, and no stop-over privileges will be granted.”

These conditions were referred to in each of the coupons.

On the twenty-seventh day of June, 1885, when the appellant was returning from Gilroy Plot Springs to Gilroy upon said ticket, as a passenger on a stage-coach of the stage-line belonging to the defendant Paine, the stage-coach, while descending a steep grade on the road, and making a sharp turn around a bank on one side, was upset against the bank solely through the negligence of the driver, and the appellant was crushed between the bank and stage-coach, and severely injured.