Case Name: NORFOLK & WASHINGTON (D. C.) STEAMBOAT CO. v. RAGLAND
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1909-03-03
Citations: 169 F. 286
Docket Number: No. 856
Parties: NORFOLK & WASHINGTON (D. C.) STEAMBOAT CO. v. RAGLAND.
Judges: Before GOFF and PRITCHARD, Circuit Judges, and DAYTON, District Judge.
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 169
Pages: 286–286

Head Matter:
NORFOLK & WASHINGTON (D. C.) STEAMBOAT CO. v. RAGLAND.
(Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
March 3, 1909.)
No. 856.
Shipping (§ 166 )—Mistreatment of Ship Passenger—Excessive Damages.
An award of $1,000 to a passenger as damages for his imprisonment and mistreatment by the officers of a vessel held excessive, and reduced to $500, where his own conduct was not without blame.
(Ed. Note.—For other cases, see Shipping, Dec. Dig. § 166.*]
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Norfolk.
For opinion below, see 163 Fed. 376.
William H. White, Jr., and Walter H. Taylor (Eoyall, Taylor & White, on the brief), for appellant.
R. T. Thorp (Thorp & Bowden, on the brief), for appellee.
Before GOFF and PRITCHARD, Circuit Judges, and DAYTON, District Judge.
For other oases see same topic & § number in Dec. & Am. Digs. 1907 to date, & Rep’r Indexen

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
This case here on appeal is a libel in personam; damages being claimed because of the arrest and imprisonment of the libelant. The court below allowed him the sum of $1,000 as compensation for the maltreatment to which he had been subjected. The only contention before us relates to the amount so allowed; the other assignments of error having been abandoned.
The right of the libelant to recover is plain—in fact, is conceded. That he was mistreated as a passenger by the representative of the appellant was fully proven, and that his conduct in connection with the matter which resulted in said mistreatment was not what it should have been, he not being without blame, is also without' question. Under all the circumstances we are of opinion that an allowance of $500 will be ample compensation. Let the decree appealed from be so modified.
Modified and affirmed.