2 Kan. App. 604 | Kan. Ct. App. | 1895
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action brought by the defendant in error, David T. Brown, against the plaintiff in error, The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Pe Railroad Company, in the district court of Atchison county to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the wrongful acts of the servants, agents and employees of the defendant in ejecting him from a passenger-train of the defendant in said Atchison county on the 25th day of March, 1889. The plaintiff alleges that prior to receiving the injuries complained of he was a physician and earned the sum of $3,000 per year by the practice of his profession, and that as a result of said injuries he became permanently disabled and rendered incapable of attending to any business whatever; that he incurred and expended the sum of $100 for medical treatment and care ; that he was confined to his bed and to his house by reason of said injuries for a period of about two months, during which time he was unable to attend to any business whatever; that his time during' said period was well and reasonably worth the sum of $500,
Answrers were made by the jury to 128 special questions submitted by the parties to the action. The record contains but little of the evidence, and only that part thereof relating to the value of the services of the physicians who attended the plaintiff, and the amount expended by him in the way of medicines, nursing, etc., during the time he was confined to bis house, or while he was suffering from the injuries received by him. The evidence supports the findings of the jury as to the value of the services of the physicians and the necessary expenses incurred by the plaintiff in addition to the medical attendance received. The defendant moved for judgment on the particular questions of fact found by the jury, notwithstanding the general verdict, which motion was overruled by the court, and is the particular error complained of.
From the special findings of fact by the jury, it appears that on or about the 25th day of March, 1889, at about 9:45 p. m., plaintiff below, Dr. David T. Brown, entered a car of the plaintiff in error at Atchison to be transported thence to Nortonville as a passenger, having in his possession at the time a ticket which he in good faith believed entitled him to such transportation, and, when called upon by the conductor, he offered said ticket for his fare, but as a matter of fact said ticket wras not one entitling him
No complaint is urged, save in the manner of defendant in error’s ejection from the platform of the car. The jury found that the conductor pushed him from the platform without notice or warning of his intention to do so, or without regard or care as to whether or not he would be injured, and in so doing used more force than was necessary, but how much' less force than was used would have accomplished the end desired does not appear. It further appears, that at the time of said ejection the defendant in error had in arms and hands a basket of flowers, a bandbox, a valise, and a hat; yet the findings show that the momentum which he received by being so pushed was not sufficient to cause him to plunge forward when he alighted on his feet, but, instead thereof, he sank down to the ground ; and this fact, coupled with the finding that neither the conductor nor brakeman had any malice toward the defendant in error, would negative the idea that any great amount of force was used, or in fact that much, if any, more force was
“The courts will not, where the passenger is in the wrong, tolerate any nice discrimination about the force necessary to secure submission to the conductor’s lawful authority and overcome the resistance, unless it may be where the conductor departs from the exercise of lawful force, and beats, wounds or maltreats the resisting passenger in the ill temper of belligerency. . . . A resisting passenger cannot expect the courts to erect delicate scales on which to weigh with exact nicety the force used to overcome his resistance.”
It is difficult to ^ascertain from the findings of fact the precise nature of the injury received by the plaintiff below. The jury found that he was made “ some sick, lame and sore” by being pushed from the platform, and that a few days thereafter he passed bloody urine, which would indicate that the injuries were occasioned by the jar produced when his feet came in contact'with the ground after being pushed from the platform, a distance of from three to four feet; but whatever injury he may have sustained was of a temporary nature, and so slight that the jury declined to make any allowance for injury to his person or for loss of time.
When the plaintiff below ascertained that the ticket held by him did not entitle him to transportation over defendant’s railroad, it was his duty, upon request of the conductor, either to pay his fare or voluntarily leave the train after it had stopped at a suitable place for that purpose, and when he refused so to do he became a trespasser, and the conductor might lawfully eject him from the train. The injuries sustained by him were occasioned by his refusal to comply with the repeated requests, lawfully made
Because of such error the judgment of the court below will be reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment upon the special findings of fact in favor of the defendant in that court.