63 Miss. 609 | Miss. | 1886
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellee, a resident of Canton, Miss., on the — day of - A. D. 188 , desiring to pay certain debts which he owed in the city of New Orleans, took passage on the appellant’s train on the evening of that day. He had, as he testifies, about three hundred and seventy dollars in currency and some checks, all contained in a large leather pocket-book which he carried in the hip-pocket of his trousers. At Jackson he entered a chair car of the defendant, paying one dollar for the privilege of riding therein. He took off his coat and vest and went to sleep. The train arrived at New Orleans early in the following morning and appellee put on his coat and went to a hotel, and soon afterward discovered that his book, with its contents, was missing from his pocket. He immediately returned to the office of the company and was there handed his pocket-book by one of its officers to whom it had been delivered by the porter of the chair car, who testified as a witness in this case and said that he found it a seat or two from that which had been occupied by Mr. Handy, and that he delivered it without opening it to the agent by whom it was given to him. On opening the book it was found that there was in it only fifty-seven dollars in money ; the appellee stated to the agent that it “ was all right,” took the book and its contents, but in an hour or less went to the principal office of the defendant and claimed that three hundred and eight dollars in money had been abstracted from it. The company refused to recognize its liability for the loss, and this suit is brought to recover therefor.
On the trial it was shown that chair cars are in charge of the porter, there being no conductor required for them specially, and that the porter of this car was at his post of duty during the night. No particular act of negligence while the car was en route is charged, but it is shown that after the passengers had left the car and before the porter had cleaned it out a person who was not employed by the company, but whom the porter occasionally hired to aid him in cleaning up the car, was permitted to enter it, and it is suggested that perhaps the theft was committed by him.
On the trial the court instructed the jury that the company was
Because of the invitation extended to travelers by sleeping-car companies to sleep upon their cars, it has been held that they owe and assume to their patrons the duty of exercising such reasonable guard over them, to prevent theft of their personal effects, as the circumstances admit and the passenger has a right to expect. This obligation is not such as pertains to common carriers or innkeepers, and such companies do not occupy the relation of insurers against all loss under all circumstances. The accommodation offered implies a certain degree of privacy for the passenger upon his retirement to rest, an intrusion on which by the servants of the company w'ould be rightly resented by him. If the company should be held liable to one passenger for a theft committed by another, it must be either upon the ground that it is, under the common-law liability of an innkeeper, a view not sanctioned by any court, so far as we are informed, or because by its contract it may be fairly said to bind itself to keep watch upon each traveler on its car, which would result in the establishment of a system of intolerable espionage. One who avails himself of the comfort afforded on such cars does so with full knowledge of the fact that others, whose character the company cannot possibly know, may become fellow-travelers with himself, and that the arrangement of the car into berths or sleeping-chairs is such that he will necessarily, while asleep, be subjected to easy approach by any dishonest traveler in the same car. The risk of loss from such persons he assumes as an incident of his circumstances, and the company can only be made responsible by evidence of its neglect to keep that reasonable guard which its contract implies that it will. Where the doors of the car are left open and unguarded so that unauthorized persons may have access to it, or the officers
The plaintiff contends that the jury was authorized by the evidence to find that the pocket-book was found or stolen by the porter who had charge of the car and was rifled by him, and that if such be the case the company is responsible for the loss, because it vouches for the honesty of its employees. This, we think, is correct within certain limits, viz.: that the company is responsible to its patrons for the conduct of its employees as to any property as to which it is brought into contract relations with its owner. But as to any other property, whether owned by a passenger or a stranger, it has no sort of connection, and as to such it lies under no greater obligation than it owes to property of all other persons,
The judgment is reversed and cause remanded.