Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-05-24
The Law OF Draxing-Room Cars.

The plaintiff was passenger on the defend
ants train. he entered the cars at Syracuse,
with tue intention OF going to Auburn. He
passed through the two ordinary cars OF the
train, In which many passengers were standing,
and nnd1ng no vacant seat, passed into the
extra charge for q seat In that car, declined to
pay IL on the ground that there was no seat
elsewhere, but expressed willingness to leave
The porter then attempted to eject him, and
this action was brought to recover for that as
sault. A nODSuit was asked on the ground that
the porter was the Servantof the owner of the
drawing room car and not of the defendant,
and refused, and plaintiff had Judgment Held
no error. The action cannot be maintained on
the conventional relation OF master and SER
want between the porter ana the defendant for
he was the servant Of Wagner, the owner Of the
0raw1ng-room Car: employed by him alone, and
liable to discharge by him alone. But the alb
sence OF this relation Is not defence to the de-
PENDANT. Under the contract with Wagner he
was TO furnish the necessary number Of draw
tng-room cars, make certain repairs, provide
ence Of the train conductors, but the train con-
duct0rs were entitled to enter the cars to
collect fares or manage the train and
maintaining order and discipline Wagner
was to account monthly to the defendant
and pay It certain proportion OF his gross
fuel ehts and cessain 81 4epa GsSe T Pe~e fo
cation Of the draw1ng-roo cars was to be left
to defendant These cars are open to all, sub
JcCJ 10 TIC 6AtI6 compensation. passengers
cannot know the private arrangement, aud
they have right to assume that these cars are
under contract with the company, and that
the servants In charge OF such cars are the SER
wants Of the company. Otherwise there would
be two separate contracts In the case of every
passenger, which would involve confusion OF
rights and obligations. and divide a RESPONSE
bility which ought to be single and definite.
Puplic interests require that the railroad COM
pahy should be charged with and responsible
Tor the management Of the train, and that all
persons employed thereon should be deemed,
as to passengers, the servants OF the railroad
company. The statute assumes that the ser
wants employed are the servants OF the COM
pany. They are required to wear badges
They are authorized to eject passengers for
Don-payment Of fare AS to sleeping-cars, the
statute provides that the railroad company Is
liable for injuries the same as II the cars were
OWED and provided by the company. The
neglect Of the plaintiff In passing through the
ordinary cars, II he saw seats occupied by lug
gage, TO ask the conductor for a seat before
passing into the drawing room Car, does not
prevent his recovering, 1t not appearing that if
such luggage had been removed there would
have been seats sufficient for the passengers
standing up In the ordinary cars. His neglect
to make such request may be accounted for
on the ground that he might have supposed it
would be unavailing. The plaintiff was not a
treSpaSSer In the drawing room car, and he
av0wed his willingness to leave on being pro-
yjded with seat In one OF the ordinary cars.
(CouTt Of appeals in Thorpe against Neg York
Central and Hudson Rirer r yiLTOad C0mpGny