133 Mass. 15 | Mass. | 1882
This is an action of contract to recover damages for a breach of the defendant’s contract to carry the plaintiff as a passenger on its railroad from Springfield to North Adams. It appeared at the trial that the plaintiff bought a ticket at Springfield, which entitled him to be carried to North Adams; that the defendant’s conductor refused to receive the ticket, and, when the train arrived at Pittsfield, the conductor, who was a railroad police officer, arrested the plaintiff for evading his fare, and delivered him into the custody of two police officers of Pittsfield, who detained him during the night in the place of detention «provided for arrested persons. The learned justice who presided in the Superior Court ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to recover damages for this arrest and imprisonment, for indignities which the plaintiff contended that he suffered at the hands of the Pittsfield police officers, for his mental suffering, and for sickness produced by a cold caught while confined.
The distinction between the rules of damages applicable in actions of contract and of tort appears to have been overlooked at the trial. Without inquiring whether all the elements of damage admitted by the court would be competent, if this had been an action of tort for an assault and false imprisonment, we are of opinion that too broad a rule was adopted in this case. Damages for a breach of a contract are limited to such as are