Case ID: ohio_9/html/0007-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\"Wood, Judge. \n      Lane, C. J.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Springfield Turnpike Co. v. William Neil and Others.
    The Act incorporating the Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Springfield Turnpike Company authorizes the Company to collect tolls from mail and passenger four wheel stages, at the rate imposed on coaches.
    
    A clause imposing tolls upon “ coaches, chariots, and other four wheeled pleasure carriages,” includes stage coaches used for the conveyance of the mail, or of passengers.
    Assumpsit for tolls accrued to the plaintiffs against the defendants for running divers coaches, chariots, and other four wheeled pleasure carriages, upon their turnpike road, through the gates, etc. Plea non-assumpsit. Reserved in Hamilton. It was conceded that the defendants, Neil, Moore & Co. run their daily lines of passenger and mail stages upon the turnpike of the plaintiffs, and were charged with the highest tolls assessed upon coaches, or four wheeled pleasure carriages, with four horses. The plaintiffs’ right to recover depends upon the construction of their charter. The Act of Incorporation fixes the rate of toll “ for every four wheeled carriage or wagon drawn by one horse or ox, at eighteen and three quarter cents; for every horse or ox in addition six and a quarter cents, etc., and for every coach, chariot, or other four wheeled pleasure carriage drawn by one horse, driver included, twenty five cents ; for every additional horse twelve and a half cents,” 26 L. O. L. 149. If the defendants’ stages are within the latter rate of toll, the plaintiffs have a right to recover.
    *Erazer, for the plaintiffs,
    contended that the defendants’ stages were coaches, within the fair meaning of the word, and cited Encyclo - pedia Americana, Reese’s and Perry’s Cyclopedias, and Johns. Diet. Coach. The charter declares all coaches and chariots pleasure carriages, and subjects all other four wheeled pleasure carriages to the same toll. By including the drivers of such carriages this is. clearly shown. But whether the defendants’ carriages are coaches or not, they are described in the general name of four wheeled pleasure carriages. They have all the requisites of pleasure carriages. They are hung on springs, have a close varnished body, with curtains, and cushioned seats. They carry passengers by the poll, not by weight. It is the style, etc., of the carriage that fixes the rate of toll, and the fact that passengers in stage coaches generally travel upon business, and not for mere pleasure, can make no difference.
    Storer and Eox, for the defendants,
    insisted that a stage was neither a pleasure carriage or pleasure coach. The Legislature intended to describe as pleasure carriages or coaches, only such carriages as were used for pleasure merely. A stage coach is as much a business carriage as the wagon in which merchandize is carried. The body of the mail coach is filled with mail bags, and only two or three passengers are taken outside; can such mail carriage be considered a pleasure carriage or coach? The common use of the carriage determines its character.
   By the Court,

"Wood, Judge.

'It is conceded that the defendants’ stages, or stage coaches, daily pass over the plaintiffs’ road, carrying the mail or passengers, and the only question is whether they are subject to pay toll as coaches or pleasure carriages, as described in the act incorporating the plaintiffs? It seems to a majority of the Court, that a correct construction of the act, will bring the defendants’ stage coaches within its provisions. Coach is a generic term. It is a kind of carriage, and is distinguished from other vehicles chiefly, as being a covered box, hung on leathers, with four wheels,. 3 Enc. Amer. 271, •tit, coach. A very large kind of coaches called omnibus, has lately come into use, which serve to carry passengers, newspapers, and furniture, ib. 272. Here an omnibus is called a coach, though not used for ¡pleasure, but for the common transportation of persons and baggage. Johnson defines a mail coach, a coach that carries the mail, and a stage coach, a coach that regularly carries passengers from town to town. Each is called a coach. It is ^contended that the word other, in the clause of the act describing these vehicles, refers to coach as well as chariot, and that the substantive chariot, used in the sentence adjectively, qualifies coach, and, carries with it the signification of pleasure coach. We do not so understand it. Coach forms a distinct member of the sentence; chariot then intervenes ; and this Johnson defines a half coach with four wheels, used for convenience and pleasure. Then follow the words other four wheeled pleasure carriage ; ■and chariot and carriage are coupled directly by the disjunctive or, intended to comprehend all pleasure carriages, other than chariots, but having no relation to coaches. We would not oppose the mere grammatical construction of a sentence, to the obvious meaning of the legislature ; but both concur here. A mail coach and a stage coach, are nevertheless coaches. A coach is the description in the act. The defendants’ coaches are run on the road with the mail and with passengers, and must pay the toll assessed upon coaches.

Lane, C. J.

dissented. The statute imposes a toll upon all four wheel carriages, but levies a higher toll upon “ coaches, chariots, and other pleasure carriages;” thus making a distinction between those devoted to industrial purposes, and those whose uses are more or less objects of luxury, and intending to favor the former, by laying a heavier burden upon the latter. A stage coach is a vehicle sui generis, but used for business, and in no sense a “pleasure carriage,” notwithstanding its ambitious name. I therefore think, that by the spirit and intention of the law, it should not be subjected to the higher rate of toll.

Cause remanded for inquiry of damages.