60 So. 506 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1912
The complaint in this case contained five counts. In each of them the plaintiff com
The plaintiff’s claim, as asserted in the different counts of her complaint, is based upon two separate and distinct theories. The theory of the first and fifth counts is that the plaintiff was entitled to recover because of the breach by the defendant of its duty to permit a passenger to remain on the train until the regular stopping place for that train to which the passenger had a ticket was reached. In the other counts the plaintiff’s reliance on information alleged to have been given by the agent selling the ticket as to the train stopping at the destination named in the ticket is a material feature of the right of action asserted. To sustain the plaintiff’s right to recover on the first-mentioned theory, it was incumbent upon her to prove that, under the schedule and rules governing the operation of the train which she boarded, Helena was a stopping place for that train, and that the plaintiff was wrongfully de
As to the theory upon which the other counts were framed, the rights of the plaintiff are to be determined with reference to the rule prevailing in this state that the ticket is the sole and exclusive evidence to the conductor of the passenger’s right to be and remain upon a train, and that a passenger may expect to have accorded to him by the conductor only such fights as his ticket on its face entitles him to — Montgomery Traction Co. v. Fitzpatrick, 149 Ala. 511, 43 South. 136, 9 L. R. A (N. S.) 851; Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. Co. v. Foster, 134 Ala. 244, 32 South. 773, 92 Am. St. Rep. 25; McGhee & Fink, Receivers, v. Reynolds, 117 Ala. 413, 23 South. 68; Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Carmichael, 90 Ala. 19, 8 South. 87, 9 L. R. A. 388; South & North Ala. R. Co. v. Huffman, 76 Ala. 492, 52 Am. Rep. 349. While this rule does not operate to relieve the carrier of responsibility for the act of its conductor in requiring a change to-another train by a passenger who, by another of the carrier’s authorized representatives, had been led to suppose that his trip could be made without having to change cars, yet it does put the passenger under the necessity of conforming his conduct to the reasonable requirements of the schedule .and regulations found to be governing the operation of the train upon which he is riding, and of changing to another train at an intermediate point when duly informed by the conductor of the necessity of his so doing in order for him to be put off at his destination ; and the passenger cannot, by a failure to comply witfy a proper request or direction to this end, or
The plaintiff’s husband testified that, after he heard that the plaintiff had to change cars at Birmingham, he went to Mr. Oden, the'defendant’s ticket agent at Hartselle, and asked him about it. In this connection the witness was permitted, over the defendant’s objection, to testify that on that occasion Oden furnished him with a time-table. We are of opinion that this testimony was subject to the objection made to it. Plainly this occurrence was no part of the res gestae of the alleged transaction with the agent upon which his principal is sought to be charged with liability. That transaction was then a thing of the past. The conversation was not
We do not discover in the evidence in this case any basis for an award of- punitive damages. With the exception of having to change cars at Birmingham, and in consequence of this change reaching her destination a little later in the afternoon than-she may have anticipated, the plaintiff’s journey is not shown to have been in any material respect different from what it would have been if'she had been permitted to go through to her destination on train No. 3. Certainly she was not subjected to any indignity by being notified in a proper manner that she would have to change to another train at Birmingham in order to be put off at the station to which she had a ticket, and there is nothing in the evidence to indicate that she has any just ground of complaint because of the manner in which she was required to make the transfer, or that the ticket agent at Hart'selle was guilty of anything more than simple negligence, or ignorance as to the schedule, when he stated that train No. 3 stopped at Helena. The necessity of changing from one train to another in the course of a
Reversed and remanded.