108 Mo. App. 152 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1904
— On April 16, 1903, the plaintiff, at Chestnut and Fourth streets, in the city of St. Louis, took passage on one of defendant’s Eighteenth street cars to go to the Four Courts, in said city, where he had been subpoenaed to appear as a witness. He paid his fare but remained on the rear platform smoking a cigar. When the car reached Ninth street, the conductor demanded fare of him. Plaintiff replied that he had paid his fare when he first got on the car. The conductor insisted that he had not and told him he would have to pay his fare or get off. Plaintiff refused to pay a second fare or to get off. The altercation was not in angry tones but was heard by passengers sitting in the rear of the car. When Eleventh street was reached, plaintiff undertook to get off, but the conductor barred his Avay and told him he must pay his fare. Plaintiff insisted that he had paid his fare once and would not pay it again. The conductor then called a police officer, who was sitting inside the ear, and told him that plaintiff would not pay his fare and he wanted him arrested. The officer told the conductor he would not arrest plaintiff unless he (the conductor) would make a formal charge against him. The conductor said he would do that and when the Four Courts building was reached, the policeman and the conductor got off
The charging part of the petition is as follows:
“Plaintiff states that while said car, in charge of said conductor, was proceeding south on said Ninth street to Clark avenue, and thence west on said Clark avenue to a point in the middle of the block between Eleventh and Twelfth streets in said city, said conductor, in charge of said car, continued to demand of plaintiff a fare of five cents in loud, angry and threatening tones of voice, in the presence and- hearing of many people in and upon said car; that when said car reached said last above-mentioned point, it was ordered stopped by the said conductor in change of the same, and said conductor falsely, maliciously and without probable cause whatsoever, at his own instance and request caused and procured plaintiff to be arrested by said police officer aforesaid against plaintiff’s will and in the presence and hearing of many people in and upon and about said car, to the great humiliation and mortification of plaintiff; and said police officer upon the instigation and demand of said conductor, in charge
“Plaintiff further states that he was then and there compelled to furnish a bond and did so furnish a bond to' assure his appearance in the First district police court of said city on or about the seventeenth day of April, 1903; that plaintiff appeared in said court on or about said last-mentioned date then and there to answer said charge of disturbing the peace.
“Plaintiff further states that a trial was had on said issue and that he was then and there on or about said last-mentioned date discharged and released from said charge aforesaid.”
Verdict and judgment were for plaintiff for twenty-five dollars actual and fifty dollars punitive damages.
In respect to the second contention, there is no evidence that the conductor had express authority from the defendant to call on a police officer to arrest a passenger for any offense, or supposed offense. He had the right under the statutes (secs. 1074, 1163, Revised Statutes 1899) to eject a passenger for refusing to pay fare, for disorderly conduct, etc., but no statutory power is given to arrest or cause the arrest of a passenger. But independent of any statute on the subject, if authority to call an officer by a conductor is not conceded in an emergency, it would practically put street railway travel in populous cities at the mercy of thieves and thugs. It is the duty of conductors to protect their passengers from, insult and injury and to protect them from the raids of thieves and pickpockets and we must hold, as we held in the ease of Grayson v. St. Louis Transit Co., 100 Mo. App. 1. c. 72, 71 S. W. 730, that in cases
“The court instructs the jury that if they find and believe from a preponderance of the evidence, first: that the defendant through its conductor on said car men
Defendant complains of this instruction for the following reasons: First, that it refers the jury to the petition to ascertain what the plaintiff was prosecuted
Discovering no reversible error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.