105 Ky. 231 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1899
delivebed the opinion or the court.
This appeal is prosecuted from’ a judgment of the Carroll Circuit Court reducing the rates for foot passengers over a ferry owned by appellant near the mouth of the Kentucky river between Prestonville and Carrollton. Appellant has been operating this ferry for many years. At the February term, 189J, of the Carroll County Court the license was renewed, and the court in its order fixed the sum allowed for transportation of each foot passenger at five cents. A short time thereafter, the appellee served upon appellant the following notice: “Mrs. Anna D. Troutman: You are hereby notified that on the first day of the Carroll
As to the first proposition: The notice only proposed to reduce the round trip for foot passengers from ten to five cents, while the motion and judgment rendered pursuant thereto not only reduce the round-trip rate from ten to five cents for such passengers, but also reduces the rate for a single trip to three cents when only one trip is made in a day. The notice is the basis of this special proceeding, no written pleadings being required by the statute. It therefore takes the place of a petition, and should set out the grounds upon which the motion was made with such distinctness as to apprise the defendant of all changes intended to be made in the ferry rates fixed by the county court order; and the judgment of the court was erroneous, in so far as it went beyond the notice, and assumed to
Upon the question of the reasonableness of the reduction it seems to us that the judgment of the court is equally at fault. Whilst a number of witnesses testify that in their opinion Jive cents for the round trip would be a reasonable compensation to the. owner of the ferry, yet each of these witnesses testifies that he has no knowledge as to the gross receipts of the ferry, or as to the cost of keeping it up under the order of the court. With one exception, none of them had had any experience in operating ferries, and but little weight can be given to their opinions. On the other hand, appellant and her ferryman are exact in their statements in regard to the cost of operating the ferry, and of the income derived therefrom. Appellant testifies that she keeps an exact account of her receipts and ex