Case Name: MARY A. SEYBOLT, as Administratrix, etc., of DANIEL H. SEYBOLT, Deceased, Respondent, v. THE NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant
Court: New York Supreme Court, General Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1883-12
Citations: 38 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 100
Docket Number: 
Parties: MARY A. SEYBOLT, as Administratrix, etc., of DANIEL H. SEYBOLT, Deceased, Respondent, v. THE NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant.
Judges: Pratt, J., concurred.
Reporter: Supreme Court Reports (Hun)
Volume: 38
Pages: 100–103

Head Matter:
MARY A. SEYBOLT, as Administratrix, etc., of DANIEL H. SEYBOLT, Deceased, Respondent, v. THE NEW YORK, LAKE ERIE AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant.
Postal cleric traveling in a postal car is to bé rega/i'ded as a passenger —his right to recover for a negligent injury received from the company is not affected by the fact that the company has given him a conditional pass. f
The defendant carried tlie mail for the United States without any special contract under the provisions of the United States Revised Statutes, which require the cars to be properly fitted up for the accommodation of the clerks to accompany and distribute the mails. Upon the requisition of the proper government officer passes were issued by the defendant for the clerks employed in caring for and sorting the mails so carried. A pass was issued to the plaintiff’s intestate, who was a clerk in the employ of the post-office department, which provided that the person accompanying it assumed, in consideration therefor, all risk of accident, and expressly agreed that the company should not be liable under any circumstances, whether of negligence of their agents or otherwise, for any injury to the person, and that he would not consider the company as common carriers, or liable to him as such.
In this action, brought to recover damages for the deatfi of the plaintiff’s intestate, alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the defendant:
Held, that the clerk was entitled, under the contract between the government and the defendant, to protection as a passenger.
That he was not affected by the terms and conditions of the pass, which were not a part of the contract made with the government, and were not sustained by any consideration.
That he was entitled to recover. (Dykman, J., dissenting.)
Appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, entered upon the verdict of a jury, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial made upon the minutes of the justice before whom the action was tried.
The action was brought to recover the damages sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the death of her husband, which was alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant. The intestate, who was a postal cleric, was killed by reason of injuries caused by the train of car's in which he was being thrown from the track. The defendant had, upon the requisition of one of the officers of the post-office department, issued to the intestate a pass, upon the back of which was printe4 a condition, providing that “ the person accepting this free pass assumes in consideration therefor all risk of accident, and expressly agrees that the New York, Lake Erie and "Western Railroad Company shall not be liable under any circumstances, whether of negligence by their agents or otherwise, for any injury to the person, or for any loss or injury to the property of the passenger using this pass. And he also agrees that as for him he will not consider the New York, Labe Erie and Western Railroad Company as common carriers, or liable to him as 'such.”
Section 4005 of the United States Revised Statutes requires “ that all cars for the post-office railway car service shall be properly fitted up, furnished, warmed and lighted for the accommodation of the clerks to accompany and distribute mails.” Sections 4000, 4001, 4002, 4003, 4004, also relate to this subject.
Lewis E. Carr, for the appellant.
J. F Seybolt, for the respondent.

Opinion:
Barnard, P. J.:
The deceased was a postal clerk, and the defendant was a carrier of the mails for the government by contract. It was a part of this contract that the postal clerks should be carried free. In such cases the clerks are passengers and entitled to protection as such. (Blair v. The Erie Railway, 66 N. Y., 313.) The clerk was not traveling upon a free pass. The government officers made requisition for passes under the contract and the defendant sent one, with a condition upon the back of the pass making the recipient agree to waive his right to sue for injuries occasioned by the negligence of the railroad company. This was not a part of the contract between the government and the defendant, nor o.f the contract between the government and the deceased. There was no basis for such a restriction upon the carrying of the clerk. There was no consider ation moving either between the government or deceased and the defendant. The question of fact properly arising upon the evidence having been found in favor of the plaintiff, the judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
Pratt, J., concurred.