162 Ky. 205 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1915
Opinion op tee Court by
Reversing.
J. P. Caddie sued the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company in the Knox Circuit Court to recover damages
Plaintiff testified that be is now the president of the Peoples Bank at Pineville and resides in that city, hut that in January, 1912, he lived in a brick building about two hundred and fifty yards from the depot at Elys, a station in Knox county, on defendant’s line of railroad. That on January 17, 1912, he purchased from the defendant’s ticket agent at Frankfort, a ticket which entitled him to be transported to Elys, via Louisville, and that he left for home that afternoon.
At Louisville he changed trains, boarding the next train out of Louisville for Corbin, arriving at Corbin about midnight. There it was again necessary to change trains and to take passage upon a train running from Corbin to Norton, Elys being on that line and about twenty-five miles east of Corbin.
There were two trains leaving Corbin daily on this line that were scheduled to stop at Elys, one leaving about six in the morning, the other about two-thirty in the afternoon, each requiring about one and a half hours to reach Elys.
There was also a fast train leaving over this road at about 3:45 in the morning, but this train was not scheduled to stop at Elys, and plaintiff waited in and ¿round the station until this train was due to leave and boarded it. When the conductor came to collect Cad-die’s fare, and saw that his ticket was for Elys, he immediately informed him that the train would not stop at that place and that he would have to alight at Flat Lick, an intermediate station, one mile west of Elys. This plaintiff said he would not do. Later, as the train, was nearing Barbourville, the county seat of Knox' county, the conductor asked Caddie if he would not rather alight at Barbourville, where he could get a hotel, than at Flat Lick, but plaintiff declined to accept the suggestion, and he says that the conductor did not speak to Mm after that.
When the train stopped at Flat Lick plaintiff failed to alight. He admits that he knew that Elys was not a regular ston for that train, having lived at said station
1. It has been held that a carrier has a right to make and enforce reasonable rules and regulations for the operation of its trains; that it is the duty of a person proposing to become a passenger, to ascertain, before boarding the train, whether it stops at his destination ; and that a passenger who boards a train not scheduled to stop at the station to which he desires to go, can not recover damages for the failure of the conductor to stop thereat.
Hi L. & N. v. Miles, 100 Ky., 84, 37 S. W., 486, 18 R., 580, it was said that “if it be within the power of a passenger by getting aboard a train to compel it to stop at any station he may designate, then the authority of the company to make reasonable rules for the conduct of its business and the running of its trains is destroyed, the traveling public would be seriously interrupted; a railroad could no longer calculate upon its trains making certain connections with trains on other roads, and the hazard of operating them would be increased.”
The rule stated in that case, however, is subject to the limitation expressed later in the opinion in L. & N. v. Scott, 141 Ky., 538, 133 S. W., 800, 34 L. R. A. (n. s.), 206, 1912C Ann. Cas., 547, wherein it was held that a railroad company is ordinarily bound by the act of its ticket- agent in agreeing with or informing the purchaser of a ticket to a certain station that the train proposed by the passenger to be taken will stop at the station for the purpose of permitting the passenger to alight thereat.
2. In the case at bar Gaddie had no information from or agreement with any ticket agent that the train he boarded would stop at Elys; but he claims and tes-
Because of these facts, it is contended that it was the contractual duty of the company to stop the train at Elys.
The greater weight of authority supports the rule that where a passenger, by reason of incorrect information of .the carrier’s employes, boards a train not scheduled to stop at the station for which he has a ticket and to which he desires to go, the carrier has a right to correct the mistake and to require the passenger to alight at a regular stopping place, which is a suitable place, from which he may take the next regular train that does stop at his destination; and that.it is the duty of the passenger to stop off at such place and wait for such train. Carter v. Southern Ry., 75 S. C., 355, 55 S. E., 771; Black v. A. C. Line, 82 S. C., 478, 64 S. E. 418; Runyon v. Penna. Ry., 74 N. J. L., 225, 68 Atl., 107; International Ry. v. Hassell, 62 Tex., 256, 50 Am. Rep., 525; Miller v. King, 21 App. Div. (N. Y.), 192, 47 N. Y. Supp., 534; L. S. & M. S. v. Pierce, 47 Mich., 277, 11 N. W., 157; Turner v. McCook, 77 Mo. App., 198; St. L. & S. W. v. Wallace, 32 Tex. Civ. App., 312, 74 S. W., 581; St. L. & S. W. v. Townsend, 45 Tex. Civ. App., 616, 101 S. W., 455. This, we think, to be a sound rule of law.
We do not mean to he understood, however, as holding that when the passenger, at the time he purchases his ticket, is informed by the ticket agent that the train he proposes to take will stop at his destination to permit him to alight, although it is not a regular scheduled stop for such train, the carrier may correct such error and the passenger he required to alight at an intermediate station, for the carrier in such case has made its ■contract; and that contract the passenger has a right to enforce.
The judgment is reversed for proceedings consistent with this opinion.