43 Kan. 225 | Kan. | 1890
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action brought by Joel Cochran, administrator of the estate of John M. Gibson, deceased, against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad Company, to recover damages for the killing of Mr. Gibson, at Holliday, in this state. At the time of his death Mr. Gibson was a widower with two married daughters, and no other children. He was the owner of a farm in Douglas county, which was occupied by a tenant. One daughter resided at Eudora, and the other at Olathe. He sometimes made his home with one, and at other times with the other daughter. He was about sixty-five years of age. About eight o’clock A. m., on the 21st day of March, 1887, he left Eudora and took passage on a regular passenger train of the Atchison road for Holliday. The latter is a junction of the Atchison road and the Southern Kansas Railway, in Johnson county. Mr. Gibson left the train at Holliday, and at once purchased a ticket at the office there over the Southern Kansas Railway for Olathe. He was compelled to wait the coming of the Southern Kansas train from Kansas City, Mo., from about 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The Southern Kansas train pulled into Holliday, on the second track, about 11:30 a.m., and at this time there were six or seven passengers for Olathe and the southwest waiting. When
It is clearly apparent from the instructions of the court and the findings of the jury, that the recovery for the plaintiff below against the railroad company was upon the theory that Mr. Gibson, at the time of his injury, was entitled to the rights and privileges of a passenger of the Atchison company. This upon the claim that the Atchison company controlled, directed and managed the Southern Kansas Railway. The testimony in the record will not sustain a verdict upon this ground. The ticket which Gibson purchased at the station, read: “Southern Kansas Rly. Co. First-class ticket. Holliday to Olathe. (When stamped by agent at first-named station.) S. B. Hynes, G. P. A. (2882.) [Reverse side— stamped:] A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co., Holliday, Mar. 21st, 1887. Ex. I, A. P. R.” At the station of Holliday, the second track south of the depot was used by the Southern Kansas Railway Company for its passenger trains, and the main track next to the depot, and south thereof, was used by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad Company. The jury found that the majority of the stock of the Southern Kansas Railway Company was owned by the Kansas City, Topeka & Western Railroad Company; that the balance of the stock of the company was owned by the Atchison Company; and that the
l. Railroad sKhoideruabiiity. “That corporation had the power to purchase and hold the stock and bonds of the Wichita & Western Railroad Company, or to guarantee the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds of that company, and thereby, as a stockholder or bondholder, or as a guarantor of the bonds, to aid that company to construct its road; but by so doing the Santa Fé Company did not make the Wichita & Western Company its servant or agent, and did not thereby make itself responsible for the negligence or other default of the Wichita & Western Company. (Laws of 1873, ch. 105; Const., art. 12, §2; Comp. Laws of 1879, ch. 23, §32.) . . . Where a parent company, operating a long line of road in the state, takes the necessary steps to construct an auxiliary railroad for the purpose of a local line, in the name of another company, and in strictly pursuing the provisions of the statute merely furnished aid as a stockholder or bondholder, or a guarantor of bonds, to the auxiliary company, and such auxiliary company constructs its road in its own name, it is not the servant or agent, in such construction, of the parent company; and the parent company is not, on account of being a stockholder or bondholder, or guarantor 0f bonds of the auxiliary company, responsible for the negligence or other default of the auxiliary company in constructing its road in its own name.”
In the case of Pullman Car Co. v. Mo. Pac. Rly. Co., 115 U. S. 587, the former company claimed that the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company was controlled by the Missouri Pacific Company, and therefore that the Missouri Pacific Company was bound, under its contract, to haul the palace cars over it. In that case, as in this, it was shown that the Missouri Pacific Company owned stock in the rail
“The Missouri Pacific Company has bought the stock of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Company, and has effected a satisfactory election of directors; but this is all. It has all the advantages of a control of the road, but that is not in law the control itself. Practically it may control the company, but the company alone controls its road. In a sense, the stockholders of a corporation own its property, but they are not the managers of its business, or in the immediate control of its affairs. Ordinarily they elect the governing body of the corporation, and that body controls its property. Such is the case here. The Missouri Pacific Company owns enough of the stock of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern to control the election of directors, and this it has done. The directors now control the road through their own agents and executive officers, and these agents and officers are in no way under the direction of the Missouri Pacific Company. If they or the directors act contrary to the wishes of the Missouri Pacific Company, that company has no power to prevent it, except by the election, at the proper time and in the proper way, of other directors, or by some judicial proceeding for the protection of its interest as a stockholder. Its rights and its powers are those of the stockholder only. It is not the corporation, in the sense of that term as applied to the management of the corporate business or the control of the corporate property.”
There is no testimony in the record tending to show that the Atchison road leased the Southern Kansas road, or that it was the owner of the road. The rights and powers of the Atchison road were those of a stockholder only; therefore the Atchison road was not the Southern Kansas corporation in the sense of that term as applied to the management of the corporate business, or the control of the corporate property of the Southern Kansas.
Upon a retrial, unless different testimony is presented, the case should not go to the jury upon the theory that the Atchison Company controlled, directed and managed the Southern
The judgment of the district court will be reversed, and the cause remanded.