35 S.C. 493 | S.C. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In the Court of Common Pleas for Aiken County, on the 20th day of February, 1891, before his honorj Judge Izlar, and a jury, the action for $1,000 damages, between
The testimony established the following as the facts of the case: On the 24 December, 1890, a ticket was purchased of the defendant’s agent at Vaucluse and received by the plaintiff, by which she was entitled to passage on defendant’s train to Aiken Junction on defendant’s leased road. The conductor, after plaintiff delivered to him her ticket, was requested by her to be let off the train at Aiken Junction. The plaintiff was accompanied by her three little children and carried a large basket. Her brother-in-law was expected to meet her at Aiken Junction, and was there to meet her and accompany her to his house. The train was about half hour behind the schedule time, and was not stopped at Aiken Junction, although it was the duty of the defendant to stop there to let off and take on passengers at that point.
Both plaintiff and defendant made written requests of the trial judge for charges. No complaint is made of the charge upon some of such requests, and as any alleged errors therein are embodied in defendant’s grounds of appeal, we will consider them there. The jury rendered a verdict for plaintiff of one hundred dollars. After judgment thereon, the defendant appealed therefrom.
We will now consider the grounds of appeal. The first and second grounds will be considered together, and are as follows : ]. “Because the presiding judge erred in charging the jury, ‘that if the conductor, upon demand that he should return the passenger to the station to which she had purchased her ticket, wilfully and without just excuse refused to do so, and ejected her from the train, she would be entitled to recover exemplary damages’— the error consisting of'not charging the jury that such action must amount to malicious, insulting, or oppressive conduct on the part of the conductor. 2. Because the presiding judge erred in charging the jury, ‘that if a party is carried beyond the station to which she has purchased her ticket and demands that she be returned to the station, and the conductor wilfully refuses in a sense that I have endeavored to show you — that a mere refusal would not do, but it must be wilful and without excuse — should refuse to return her, why, she would be entitled to such damages, not only for what was the contract and may be the result of the act, but such additional damages as you in your judgment may think proper to give her by way of exemplary damages.’ ”
The propriety of this court considering these grounds of exception together, will be manifest by reading both at the same time. If taken singly, each one would fall within that class which makes a quotation here and a quotation there of a judge’s charge, by which a great injustice is done the trial judge. He is entitled to have his whole deliverance upon any branch of the law consid
Now, the foregoing illustrations, as applied to a stage coach, are such as might attend passage by that mode of travel. In the case of railroad trains, when a passenger had provided himself with the right to demand a delivery of himself as a passenger thereon at some point on the railway’s route of travel, if such carrier was surrounded by circumstances that would excuse his failure to deliver his passenger at its depot or station, such as a fire raging at that point, or in case of delay, the danger of a collision with another train if a stop was made, such railroad would be excused for such failure. But suppose it arose from the careless indifference of the conductor or a malicious disregard of the passenger’s right, would it be excusable ? Certainly not. If the' carrier can with safety discharge his passenger at the point of
In our consideration of the first two grounds of appeal, we have laid down a definition of exemplary damages. We did not state the authorities for such declaration. Briefly, it may be stated as the result of judicial interpretation of this class of torts, that the damages awarded against the defendant are intended to compensate the plaintiff for the wrong done him and at the same time as a punishment for the tort feasor. This view prevails in this and the mother country. It applies to natural persons and to artificial persons. It not only reaches to the master, but also to ■ his
But there is a question presented by this exception that merits attention : we mean that part that seeks to fasten upon the trial judge the duty of passing upon the question, whether there is. or is not proof going to prove every issuable fact in this ease. What the appellant seeks here is a ruling from the trial judge as to his duty in the first instance, before submitting the case to the jury, but to be submitted by him in his instructions to the jury, to decide whether, under the testimony in this case, there is made a case justifying exemplary damages. It is due to appellant here, that we should acknowledge that there are some expressions in that portion of the work of Mr. Thompson on Negligence devoted to a consideration of punitive damages, notably at page 1264, which seem to indicate that the, trial judge should decide this question, and so state his conclusion to the jury. This is the language of that author: “Exemplary, punitive, vindictive damages or smart money, as they are called indifferently, are given by way of punishment of the wrong committed by the defendant, and with a view of deterring others from like offences. Whether or not; the case is one that justifies exemplary damages, is a question for the court to determine in its instructions to the jury. In the discharge of this duty, the court looks to the animus of the defendant that accompanied the injury. If it was wantonly and
While this court has already approved this declaration by the author, wherein he defines this class of torts, yet we have been unable to discover anything in this class of offences that justifies any greater power in a trial judge in regard thereto than such as are legitimately exercised by him in any other cases. This court has repeatedly recognized it as the privilege and duty of a trial judge to determine, in the first instance, whether there is any evidence in a case going to establish the issuable facts, and if the learned author merely intends to state this conclusion, we heartily concur with him. But if it is intended to go further, and say that a trial judge must decide and announce to the jury that the testimony offered has established certain conclusions, thereby invading the province of the jury, we cannot concur, for such a view is not only at variance with repeated declarations of this court limiting the power of trial judges in deciding questions of fact in his charge to the jury, but also with the letter and spirit of the ■provisions of our State Constitution relating to trial by jury. We are very glad of an opportunity, occurring as it does so soon after the decision of this court in the case of Spellman v. Richmond and Danville Railroad Company (ante, 488), where this very quotation from Thompson on Negligence is made, to record this expression of our views touching the same, for, we may remark, in the hurry incident to the preparation of the opinion of the court in that last mentioned case, we failed to state our restricted approval of the same. This ground of appeal must be dismissed.
It is the judgment of this court, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.
It seems to have been a flag station. — Reporter.