Baltimore & Potomac Railroad v. Swann

Bryan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. William T. Swann and Elizabeth, his wife, brought suit against the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company for bodily injuries sustained by the wife. Verdict and judgment being rendered in their favor, the defendant appealed. The female plaintiff, about midday on the eleventh day of May, 1893, accompanied by her child ten months old, travelled on the mixed train of the defendant, composed of ⁴⁰⁷ passenger coaches and freight cars, from Pope’s Creek to Cox’s Station, intending to return on the evening of the same day.

She purchased a ticket at Cox’s Station for the purpose of taking the passenger train which would in ordinary course leave that station about seven o’clock, P. M. The passenger coaches were “ switched off” at Cox’s and only a baggage car was run from that station on that evening to Pope’s Creek. She entered that car and was conveyed to Pope’s Creek. The evidence in behalf of the plaintiffs tended to show that the accommodations were very uncomfortable and unsuitable for travellers; and that in consequence of the absence of all conveniences she “was shaken up and knocked about from side to side, and slammed against the side of the car several times, and that immediately after one of these slams, when she was struck in her right side by the side of the car, she experienced a pain there, which was followed by a pain in her back.” The evidence also tended to show that the woman was pregnant, and that the injuries which she received caused a miscarriage and that she had suffered pains in her back and side almost constantly for six months. The evidence for the defendant tended to show that she was not thrown about or jostled.

It was further testified, that the cars could not be shifted at Pope’s Creek without special danger, unless a drag-rope was used; and that the drag-rope used for this purpose had been broken in two on the evening of the tenth, having been before that time weakened by being run over by cars; that the conductor had telegraphed for one on the morning of the ninth, and thereafter, on reaching Baltimore, had applied at the office of the company, but that none was received until the morning of the twelfth. The female plaintiff was a laboring woman, being in the habit of washing, cooking and working in the field. She lived about a mile or a mile and a-half from Pope’s Creek, and at the time of these occurrences she had three children. She went to Cox’s on a visit to the family of Thompson, a section hand on the railroad, ⁴⁰⁸ who lived about half a mile from the station.

There was some conflict of evidence in reference to the cause of the alleged miscarriage, the defendant’s testimony supporting the theory that it was more likely to have been caused by the woman’s exertions and the excitement consequent upon them before she entered the cars, and after she left them, than by any injuries received while travelling in them. When the female plaintiff purchased a ticket at Cox’s Station, she acquired a contract right to be conveyed to Pope’s Creek, in one of the defendant’s passenger coaches. If we assume that causes beyond the defendant’s control prevented the use of a passenger coach on that occasion, the obligation still remained to carry the passenger safely, so far as it could be done by the exercise of the highest degree of care and skill which was consistent with the nature of the undertaking. If the baggage car was as safe a vehicle of transportation for passengers as the defendant could procure by the utmost care and diligence, it fulfilled its duty in this respect.

There is no evidence to sustain such an hypothesis, and probably it is contrary to the usual experience of travellers. And yet, as the defendant substituted it for the passenger coach which it was bound by its contract to furnish, the least which could be demanded of it would be some reasonable effort to make it safe and convenient for a passenger. If the passenger was injured in the defendant’s cars in the course of her journey, and in consequence of some fault or defect in the vehicle of transportation, the defendant is clearly liable for the injury, unless it can show the utmost care and diligence on its part. And we think that these are the proper inquiries for the jury in this case.

It cannot be alleged against the passenger as fault or negligence that she took passage in the baggage car. She had a right to be conveyed by the defendant, and she was constrained to travel in this way or not be conveyed at all. Domestic duties of the most pressing kind required that she should return that night to Pope’s Creek. It would ⁴⁰⁹ be unreasonable