Baltimore & Ohio Railroad v. Cain

McSherry, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an action of trespass for false imprisonment. The declaration alleges in substance that the plaintiff was a passenger upon one of the cars of the defendant; that he was received as such passenger at Washington Grove station for the purpose of being carried from that place to Washington City, and that it thereupon became the duty of the defendant to carry the plaintiff safely to his destination ; yet the defendant did not carry the plaintiff safely to Washington, but instead thereof, when the car conveying the plaintiff reached the depot of the defendant in said city, the defendant, by its agents and servants, assaulted and beat the plaintiff, and forced him to go from said car and depot into the public street, and gave him into the custody of a police officer, who took him to a police station, and caused the plaintiff to be there imprisoned, without any probable cause, for the space of two hours ; whereby he was greatly bruised, hurt and injured. The defendant pleaded not guilty.

During the progress of the trial, which resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, four exceptions were reserved and the defendant then took the pending appeal. There is, as might be expected, and as is usual in cases of this character, some diametrically conflicting testimony respecting a portion of the material facts; but only so much ⁹⁷ of this as is necessary to clearly present the legal principles involved need be alluded to or .stated. It is not disputed by either side, that early on Sunday morning, August the twenty-first, 1892, the plaintiff and three companions drove to a camp-meeting held at Washington Grove, in Montgomery County, and that shortly after reaching the ground they, together with several others, went to the railroad station nearby, and the four, namely, the plaintiff and three others by the name of Watkins, took passage on the cars of the defendant for the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia. They entered the ladies’ car, and from this point the conflicting statements of the witnesses begin.

According to the plaintiff’s evidence, these four parties demeaned themselves in the car with perfect propriety until the conductor charged one of them, Robert Watkins, with smoking. Watkins denied the accusation and some words followed, whereupon the conductor threatened to put Watkins off the train. The plaintiff then told the conductor that he, the conductor, would go off too if he put Watkins off for nothing. After further words the conductor said he would have the party arrested when they got to Washington, and just as the plaintiff stepped off the train in the depot at Washington he was arrested by a police officer, to whom the conductor, then standing by and pointing to the plaintiff and the elder Watkins, said, “ These are the men.” They were taken to the police station, and after having given their watches and effects as bail, and after having been in custody fifteen or twenty minutes, they were released.

The conductor appeared against them at the station house. The plaintiff himself testified that “the police fined them five dollars apiece, and he left, his watch as security, and afterwards produced the money and got the watch.” Upon the part of the defendant, it was proved by a number of witnesses, some of whom were passengers on the same train of cars, that the conduct of the plaintiff and his three companions was most disgraceful, shocking and disorderly, from the time they reached the camp-meeting ⁹⁸ ground until they arrived in Washington. They were drunk before boarding the train, and as stated by one of the witnesses, “ it was not decent for them to be where there were ladies and when they were remonstrated with and requested to desist from using profane language in the presence of ladies, they, all, including the plaintiff, in loud and boisterous tones, replied by saying, “God damn the .ladies.” The defendant further proved, that after these men entered the ladies car they cursed and swore and drank liquor openly, and that one of them was smoking; that the conductor expostulated with them and urged them to be quiet, or to go into the smoking car where they could drink and smoke as much as they pleased; that they said they had paid their fares and would ride where it suited them. The conductor again appealed to them to be orderly or he would be obliged to put them off the car; whereupon the plaintiff replied, “ if you put him off (meaning Watkins, who was smoking), you will have to go too.” It was further proved, that numerous complaints were made by ladies and gentlemen about the conduct of these four men, and that one lady left the car and went into the forward car.

Afterwards other ladies who got on the train at other stations were put in the forward car, because it was not fit for them to enter the one where these men were. The conductor did not undertake to put them off, because he did not' believe himself able to cope with these four intoxicated and lawless men. Just before the train arrived in Washington the plaintiff was still behaving in a disorderly, manner and using profane language in the hearing of the passengers on the same car. There were between fifty and sixty passengers on the train, most of whom were on their way to church in Washington.

Finding himself unable to control these men or to suppress their disorder, and feeling powerless to eject them because of their threatened resistance, the conductor telegraphed from Forest Grove to Washington for an officer to arrest them, and when the train drew up in the depot in that city the policeman was there, and the con ⁹⁹ ductor pointed out to him the plaintiff, and the officer then and there arrested the plaintiff and took him to the station house. With these facts before the jury, there were two prayers presented by the plaintiff, both of which were granted f and there were nine presented by the defendant, all of which, except the sixth, were rejected. The view we take of the case dispenses with a separate consideration of each of these prayers, inasmuch as the defendant’s fifth prayer raises the crucial inquiry contained in the record; and what we shall say in discussing that prayer will, with a few brief additional observations, dispose of most, if not all, of the others. The fifth prayer maintains that if the plaintiff was riotous and disorderly the conductor had the right to eject him; that if the conductor was unable to do this by reason of the threat of resistance, then the conductor was justified in requesting the first police officer whom he could find to arrest the plaintiff; and it proceeds, “ if the jury further find, that the police officer at the Washington depot was the first police officer the conductor saw, and that the conductor used due diligence in procuring a police officer, and that the conductor directed the police officer to arrest the plaintiff for said disorderly conduct, that the defendant is not liable for this arrest, and the verdict of the jury must be for the defendant.” From this prayer, considered in connection with the evidence to which allusion has been made, it is obvious at a glance that the predominant and controlling question before us involves the legality of the conceded arrest made in the city of Washington.

Under the undisputed proof that arrest was made without a warrant having been first procured. It was not made for an alleged felony, nor for a misdemeanor or breach of the peace committed within view of the officer who took the plaintiff into custody; but, if the evidence of the defendant’s witnesses be credited, it was made for a flagrant breach of the peace, which began at Washington Grove and continued into Washington City, on ¹⁰⁰ the moving train of the defendant, and was made at the instance of the conductor the very moment he reached a place where he could -deliver these intoxicated offenders into the custody of a police officer. Was the arrest so made illegal? It is settled that an officer has the right to arrest without a warrant for any crime committed within his view.

It was his duty to do so at the common law, and this is still the law. Roddy v. Finnegan, 43 Md. 504 ; Phillips v. Trull, 11 Johns. 486 ; Derecourt v. Corbishly, 5 El. & Bl. 188; and in cases of felony he may arrest upon information, without warrant, where he has reasonable cause. Rex v. Birnie, 1 Moody & R. 160; Rohan v. Sawin, 5 Cush. 281 . And so any person, though not an officer, in whose view a felony is committed, may arrest the offender.

Ruloff v. People, 45 N. Y. 213 . But the right of a person not an officer to make an arrest is not confined to cases of felony, for he may take into custody, without a warrant, one who in his presence is guilty of an affray or a breach of the peace. Knot v. Gay, 1 Root, 66 . “It seems agreed that any one who sees others fighting may lawfully part them, and also stay them till the heat be over, and then deliver them to the constable, who may carry them before a justice of the peace, in order to their finding sureties for the peace.” 1 Rus. on Crimes, 272; 1 Arch. Crim.

Prac. & Pl., 82; 1 Haw. P. C., ch. 63, sec 11 and 17; 2 Hale P. C., 90; East P. C., 306; Timothy v. Simpson, 1 C. M. & R. 757. The case last cited was one of trespass for assault and false imprisonment and taking the plaintiff to a police station. Plea, that the defendant was possessed of a dwelling house and the plaintiff entered the same and then and there insulted, abused and ill-treated the defendant and his servants, and greatly disturbed them in the peaceable enjoyment thereof in breach of the peace, whereupon the defendant requested the plaintiff to cease his disturbance and to depart from' and out of the house, which the plaintiff refused to do; that thereupon the defendant, in order to ¹⁰¹ preserve the peace and restore good order in the house, gave charge of the plaintiff to a policeman, and requested the policeman to take the plaintiff into his custody to be dealt with according to law, and the policeman gently laid his hands on the plaintiff and took him into custody.

It appeared in evidence that the