Case: ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY v. MESSINA
Abbreviation: Illinois Central Railroad v. Messina
Decision Date: 1916-03-06
Docket Number: No. 535
Citation: 240 U.S. 395
Volume: 240
Reporter: United States Reports
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY v. MESSINA.
Judges: I am authorized to say that Mr. Justice McKenna concurs in this-dissent.
Pages: 395–398

Head Matter:
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY v. MESSINA.
ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. ’
No. 535.
Argued February 23, 1916.
Decided March 6, 1916.
While the Anti-pass Provision of the Hepburn Act of 1906 may have . had more formal uses especially in view than that of allowing a person to ride upon an interstate train by permission of an employé of the carrier, this court cannot limit the prohibition to such uses.
There being a question whether plaintiff, who was injured while riding free by consent of the engineer on the engine of an interstate train, could have recovered under state law had.his presence been illegal under the Federal statute, held that it was reversible error not to have charged the jury that the Federal act applied.
The facts, which involve the construction and application of the Anti-pass. provision of the Hepburn Act of 1906, are stated in the opinion..
Mr. R. V. Fletcher, with whom Mr. Edward Mayes and Mr. Blewett Lee were on the brief, for plaintiffs in error.
Mr. Harry Peyton, with whom Mr. William H. Watkins was on the brief, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Holmes
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an action for personal injuries suffered by the defendant in error while upon a train running from Mississippi to Tennessee. He had paid' no fare but was upon the tender, as he said, by permission of the engineer. The engineer had noticed that the water was high between Beatty and Sawyer and oyer the track at Sawyer. After passing Beatty the train was going at a rate variously put as thirty-five to fifty or sixty miles an hour when it ran into the water and was thrown from the track. The plaintiff was caught between the tender and a car and badly hurt.
The plaintiff got a judgment for $10,000, which was sustained by the Supreme Court. At the "trial the jury were instructed that the defendant railroad was presumed to be negligent and that if the evidence left it doubtful it was their duty to find full damages for the plaintiff. The judge refused to instruct them that the engineer had no authority to permit the plaintiff to ride on the train 'at the.place he was in,' but the request for this instruction was based upon the company's rules, not upon the Act to Regulate Commerce. The Supreme Court, however, discussed the act of Congress and held that it did not apply to the case.
. By § 1 of the act of Feb. 4,1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379, as amended by the act of June 29, 1906, c. 3591, 34 Stat. 584, and still in force, any common carrier violating the provisions against free transportation is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a penalty, and any person other than those excepted'who uses any such interstate . . . free transportation' is made subject to a like penalty. No doubt the' enactment had somewhat more formal uses especially in view, but we see no reason for limiting the prohibition to them. The word 'such' like' 'said' seems to us to indicate no more than that free transportation had been mentioned before. We cannot think that if a prominent merchant, or official should board a train and by assumption and an' air of importance should obtain. free carriage he would escape the Act. We are of opinion therefore that the Act was construed wrongly. Assuming, as it has been' assumed, that the defendant's liability was governed otherwise by state law, it seems doubtful under the state decisions whether the plaintiff would have been allowed to recover had the court been, of opinion that the act of Congress made his presence on. the train illegal. West Un. Tel. Co., v. McLaurin, 66 So. Rep. 739. And although there are expressions in the opinion below that raise a doubt, the fact' that the Supreme Court thought it necessary to construe the act indicates that the construction was material to the result. For this reason the judgment must be reversed.
Judgment reversed.