New-York tribune., 1873-06-30
PROTECTION ON STREET CABS.

The decision of the General Term of the
Superior Court of this city in the Putnam case
is one upon which the public may well be
congratulated. The widow Of Avery ID. Put
nam obtained in the court below verdictlof
5000 against the Seventh Avenue Railroad
Company for injury sustained through the
murder of her husband by William Foster on
one of the COmpany's cars. The case was ap-
pealed, and the General Term by a majority
decision has Just sustained the Judgment, Chief
Justice Barbour dissenting. The Court holds
that common carrier is bound "nOt only to
"guard each passenger from violence and as
"sault of its own agents and employees, but
" from the assaults and violence of other pas
"sengers carried in the same conveyance, and
" from other causes of discomfort or injury
(which could have been reasonably anticipated
cor prevented" Judge Barbour is of the
opinion that while this rule may hold good as
to steam railways and steamboats,, 1t does
not ABBY Is Stfee6E cars, from which
passenger menaced by violence can
at any time escape. With all Difference TO the
Chief Justice we must say that whether ms
dissenting opinion be law or not, 1t certainly
is not common sense. In the first place 1t Is
not true that peaceable passenger can
always escape by leaving the car; and in the
second place it is obvious that the carriers
make an implied contract with their passengers
to convey them to their destination IN a
reasonably safe and decent manner. If they
are at liberty to permit drunken ruffans'
notorious pickpockets, brawlers, and other
dangerous persons to remain IN the cars, we
do not see why they may not also carry
smallpox patients, mad dogs, and raylng
maniacs, and say to their other passengers
eff you don't like it, get ont"
The decision IN favor of Mrs Putnam may
reasonably be expected to lead to certain re-
forms in street car management for which
there has lOngSbeen crying need On some OF
the lines an effort has really been made to
exclude disorderly characters, but we cannot
say as much for others. The Third Avenue
Line, for instance, at night Is scandal
ously unsafe, and at certain hours il
is almost given up to drunkards. There are
frequent fights and foul language, profanity,
and various disgusting exhibitions are too
common to attract much notice. Very often
the conductors and drivers display real cOur-
age in ejecting ruffians from the car, after
some worse than ordinary exhibition of bru-
tality; sometimes they are severely in
jured in the struggle, and sometimes
the roughs get the better of them,
and keep possession. p The great fault
is in admitting persons whose condition is
such as to render them a nuisance if not a
positive danger. 1t is alleged in excuse fOI
the disorders of this road that it runs through
part of the city where the dangerous classes
abound, and that conductor, unless he is a
man of great physical strength, is entirely un-
able to keep order. But the Court holds, in
the decision now before us, that carriers OF
passengers are required to have servants and
"agents in their service, competent, skilled,
I" and experienced, for their several employ
"ments,' and if a single conductor il not
enough to prevent drunkards or other rutfians
from disturbing the peace of the car and en-
dangering the comfort and lives of the passen-
gers, then it follows that the company is
bound, by its implied contract, to place upon
every car as many sturdy guards as may be
necessary. Let it be clearly understood that
common carriers are responsible for the mis-
conduct of passengers in their conyeyances,
and we shall soon have order.
|
Albert Smith, hanged in Springfield, Mass. last
week. for murder left the story of his fe-a sort of