Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-10-17
RIGHTS OF IRA TELERS AND DUTIES
or CARRIERS.

or CIHRiEhS.
Two interesting eases" says the Spring
field Republican, Involving the right OF
travellers on railroads and steamboats,, and
the duty of carrying companies to protect
their passengers instead of abusing them,
have lately been decided by high judicial
authority. and should be carefully noted
bv all whom it may concern. The first Is
the case of Judge Goddard of Maine,
which we alluded to when it was before
lower court, but now mention again as 1t
has lust been decided by the supreme
court of the state that the verdict rendered
in the other court, whereby the plaintiff
was awarded 1850 damages. shall be
sustained, all the exceptions taken by the
defendant having been oyerruled.
In this case the oflense was an aggra-
waited assault on Judge Goddard by one OF
the servants of the Grand Trunk railroad
company,-a brakeman authorized to re-
ccive tickets, who, after Judge Goddard
had surrendered his ticket, approached
him and denied that he had either given
up or shown his ticket; called the plaintiff
liar, charged him with trying to avoid
the payment Of his fare, and with hay
ing done the same thing before; threat
ened to split his head open; shook his fist
violently in the plaintiffs face; and only
stopped the assault when the whistle sound
ed for the next station. Judge Goddard
at the time was in feeble health and had
done absolutely nothing to provoke the
assault His ticket was afterward found
and identified in the conductors hands,
but though the railroad company were
notified of the misconduct of their brake
man, they refused to discharge him, and
he was in their employ at the time OF the
trial. In his opinion, sustaining the YER
diet Of the lower court for damages, Judge
Walton LAYS down the law concerning the
obligation of carriers in this emphatic
way -
1.-The carriers obligation, is to carry his
passenger safely and properly, and to treat
him respectfully, and if he entrusts the
performance OF this duty to his servants,
the law holds him responsible for the
manner in which they execute the trust
The law seems to be now well settled that
the carrier is obliged to protect his passen-
ger from violence and insult, from what
ever source arising He is not regarded
rs an insurer Of his passengers safety
against every possible source OF danger;
| but he is bound to use all such reasonable
I
| sight are capable of to make his passengers
Journey safe and comfortable. He must
not only protect his passenger against the
violence and insults of strangers and CO.
passengers, but fortiori against the vio-
lence and insults of his own servants. If
this duty to the passenger is not performed,
| if this protection is not furnished, but, on
the contrary, the passenger is assaulted and
wilful misconduct of the carriers servant,
the carrier is necessarily responsible"
The other case occurred in Rhode Island,
and has lately been decided there by Judge
Clifford, of the United States district court
/ for that district The plaintiff was Dewitt
c. Pendieton, who took passage on the
steamer Perry, to go from Newport to
Providence. He offered to buy a ticket OF
the clerk but the latter could not make
change. Later during the trip the clerk
demanded payment of fare, which Pendle-
ton refused, on the ground that he had
once offered to pay for ticket and had
been unable to do so. Upon this the clerk
made personal assault upon him, pulled
him from his seat and showed him down
/ the companion way to the lower cabin.
/ On account OF injuries received in the
tussle he sued the owner of the boat for
damages, and though the plaintiff very
ioolishiy brought the assault upon himself
by his bubble about the fare, Judge Cliff
ford holds the boat owner liable for the
damages inflicted on the plaintiff by the
clerk not merely on the ground of prin-
cipal answering for the acts of his agent,
bnt on the ground Of Il breach of the obi
CATION the carrier has assumed that a
passenger shall not be ill-treated by him
self or his employees. Passengers said
Judge Clifford, do not contract merely
lOf snip room anu tIaiS iIoitdtioii II YIN oiiN
place to another, but they also contract
for good treatment and against personal
rudeness and every wanton interference
with their persons, either by the carrier
or his agents employed in the manage
f ment of the ship OF other conveyance, and
: for the iulfilment of these obligations the
: carrier is responsible as principal; and the
injured party, in case the obligation of
good treatment is broken, whether by the
principal or his employees, may proceed
against the carrier us the party bound to
make compensation for the breach of the
Obligation"
a The store Of II. +. G j. Woodman of North
d Leeds, was entered the night of the l. It'll, by
Il forcing the front doors open, and thirty dol
n lars were taken from the drawer. No clue to
s the thief.