77 So. 67 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1917
On April 3, 1914, the plaintiff telephoned to the defendant's agent at Bessemer, Ala., that he wanted transportation from Bessemer to Shreveport, La., and for the agent to make up the transportation from Bessemer, Ala., to Shreveport, La., and return. Shortly after this phone message, and before the train was due, plaintiff went to the defendant's ticket office in the city of Bessemer, and told defendant's agent who he was, and the agent delivered to plaintiff a book containing mileage coupons, form S. I. M., and a ticket from Bessemer, Ala., to Shreveport, La., the agent tearing out of the book coupons to pay for the ticket, and the plaintiff signing the contract printed on the lid of the mileage book. At the same time, plaintiff paid to defendant's agent $25, being the price of a 1,000-mile coupon book, S. I. M. The plaintiff testified that defendant's agent told him that the transportation was all right. The ticket which defendant's agent gave to plaintiff, and for which he pulled the mileage, routed plaintiff over defendant's railroad and over the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railroad to Shreveport, and plaintiff did travel over said route to his destination without further incident. There was stamped on the face of the contract, signed by plaintiff, and stamped by defendant the following: "Coupons from this book will not be accepted on trains," etc., and, "On and after March 1, 1914, coupons from this book will not be accepted for transportation over the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railroad, nor will coupons from this book be accepted for transportation over the Louisiana Railway Navigation Company, west of the Mississippi river." The above quotations were stamped in red ink on the face of the contract, and in letters four times as large as the letters in the body of the contract. This contract was stamped by the company, evidencing its acceptance, and signed in ink by the plaintiff. There was also in evidence joint passenger tariff No. 5858, canceling joint passenger tariff No. 5843, and supplementing *230 passenger tariff No. 5853, in effect March 1, 1914, governing interchangeable 1,000-mile individual tickets, form S. I. M. This tariff shows that published in it are the separate rates, rules, and regulations of a number of individual carriers, to wit, forty, among which are the defendant, Alabama Vicksburg Railway, and Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway. Contained in said tariff is the following:
"Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway, effective March 1, 1914, this company will not honor coupons from mileage tickets, form S. I. M., which are sold on or after that date. Coupons from mileage tickets, form S. I. M., sold prior to March 1, 1914, will be honored if presented within the limit of such mileage tickets. The mileages, arbitraries, etc., of this company, published in tariff, to which this is a supplement, will therefore only be applicable to mileage tickets sold prior to March 1, 1914."
The above tariff was filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission, January 31, 1914, and it was either admitted or shown that all the legal requirements pertaining to said tariff had been complied with. It was admitted that the defendant was a common carrier of passengers, and was such carrier on April 3, 1914.
Some time after the plaintiff reached Shreveport, and in about three weeks, desiring to return to Bessemer, he presented himself to the ticket agent of the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway at Shreveport, and demanded a ticket, in exchange for mileage coupons out of the book he had purchased from defendant's agent. The agent of the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway declined to let him have a ticket on that mileage, and plaintiff testified, though this is denied, that the agent told him to get on the train and the conductor would pull it. Be this as it may, the plaintiff did get on a train of the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway, coming in the direction of Bessemer, and when he was about 14 miles out, the conductor declined to accept the coupons, and required plaintiff to leave the train, which he did under such circumstances as that he was put off the train at a small town. Plaintiff testified that he didn't have money enough to buy a ticket, and was forced to borrow it and travel on a slow train the remainder of the way.
Upon this state of facts, plaintiff claims damages for that defendant's agent wrongfully represented to him that said mileage transportation was good over the said Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway upon his return trip, and alleges as elements of damage humiliation, vexation, physical pain, mental anguish, and delay.
It is conceded that the conductor acted within the law when he ejected the plaintiff from the train of the Vicksburg, Shreveport Pacific Railway. S. A. L. Ry. Co. v. Patrick,
The defense indicated above was made by appropriate plea, to which demurrer was interposed and sustained. The court erred in sustaining the demurrer.
The judgment of the lower court is reversed and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded.