N.Y.P. N.R.R. Co. v. Waldron

This is an action for false arrest and imprisonment brought by the appellee, William Waldron, against the appellant, the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Company. The case was tried before a jury upon issues joined on plea of not guilty, and the result was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, from which the defendant has appealed. There are twelve bills of exceptions in the record; one relates to the ruling of the lower Court on the prayers for instructions to the jury, and the other eleven to the rulings of the Court upon questions of evidence. The plaintiff offered three prayers, the defendant, four.

To the granting of the plaintiff's prayers the defendant *Page 443 objected, "both generally and because there was no legally sufficient evidence to sustained them." All of the plaintiff's prayers were granted, while two of the defendant's prayers were granted and two rejected. To the ruling of the Court in granting the plaintiff's prayers, and in the rejection of the defendant's third and fourth prayers the defendant excepted. The defendant's fourth prayer asks the Court to instruct the jury that under the pleading and evidence in the case there was no evidence legally sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover; and by the other rejected prayer of the defendant (the third prayer) the Court was asked to instruct the jury "that there is no evidence legally sufficient to prove that any of the agents or officers of the defendant corporation, the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Company, was ever authorized by said company to do or commit any of the acts complained of by the plaintiff, or that the said defendant company ever adopted or ratified said acts of said officers or agents, and the verdict of the jury must therefore be for the defendant." The plaintiff testified that on Saturday, the 30th day of November, 1907, while holding a ticket entitling him to passage upon the defendant's steamer and over its road and its connecting roads from Norfolk to Philadelphia, he boarded its steamer at Norfolk, from whence he went to Cape Charles, at which point he entered the car of the defendant. That after taking a sea therein two young men, strangers to him, but whose names as he afterwards learned were McDorman and Freeze, entered the car, and after being seated a short while, one of them took from his pocket a bottle of whiskey.

They drank from the bottle and then passed it to a number of others in the car, including the witness, who drank from it. The witness stated, however, that it was the first drink he had taken that day and would not have taken that only they insisted on it. McDorman and Freeze then separated, McDorman taking a seat to himself with his head leaning up against the window. While in this position Freeze approached *Page 444 and struck McDorman, breaking the window glass.

At this time Truitt, the conductor, was not in the car, but when he learned of the glass being broken he told Freeze that he would have to pay for it, which he did. In his conversation with the conductor, Freeze charged McDorman and others in the car, including the plaintiff, with stealing his money and became boisterous and profane in his language. While the plaintiff was sitting by himself, and after the train had left one of the stations on the road, Kellar's, as the witness thought, the conductor approached him and told him that he had intended to have Freeze arrested at the station just passed, but that he couldn't find any officer and that he had to take him to Princess Anne; that he had phoned up or wired to Princess Anne for the sheriff to arrest him there. When the train was near Princess Anne the conductor told the plaintiff that he would have to have him as a witness and wrote down his name and address in Philadelphia, which were given to him by the plaintiff, and was told by the plaintiff that he would come down at any time he would notify him.

Later, and just as the train was slowing up for Princess Anne, the conductor said to the plaintiff: "You have got to go with them," meaning the officers who were to arrest Freeze; to which the plaintiff replied: "Are you going to lock me up?" The conductor said, "Yes, we shall have to hold you as a witness," to which the plaintiff replied: "All right, I will have to go, that is all." When the train stopped at the station the sheriff and, as he supposed, his deputy came into the car, and as the deputy with Freeze approached the plaintiff the conductor said: "You take this man along as witness; there is no charge against him, but we have got to have him as a witness." The officer said to him: "Come with me," and he went. They went from the station to the jail. When they reached the jail they entered and went so far as the corridor. Freeze was placed in a cell.

The sheriff then asked the plaintiff if he could give any bail, as there was no charge against him. The plaintiff replied that he *Page 445 knew no one in Princess Anne, that it was the first time he was ever in the town, but said he had some money, seventy-five dollars, "if that would do any good." He was told by the sheriff to put up fifty dollars for his appearance when needed. He thus gave to the sheriff fifty dollars, for which the sheriff gave to him a receipt and he went to the hotel. This was about one o'clock Sunday morning, the hour for the arrival of the train at Princess Anne being about twelve o'clock at night.

On Sunday morning he again saw the sheriff, at which time the sheriff returned to him his money and released him from the necessity of returning as a witness. He then went to the hotel and paid his bill and from there he went to the station, where he bought a ticket to Delmar, paying therefor sixty-five cents. The conductor had taken the coupon off that part of the ticket that carried him to Delmar, the ticket was good from Delmar to Philadelphia. S. Upshur Long, the sheriff of Somerset county, referred to in plaintiff's testimony, on behalf of the plaintiff, testified, "That he received a message to go to what is called the midnight train that night (the occasion referred to in plaintiff's testimony) and that he went there as sheriff somewhere between twelve and one o'clock.

That on his way to the depot he met John H. Packard, at that time bailiff of Princess Anne, who was also going out to the depot, he having been asked, as he stated, to go to the station for the same purpose for which the sheriff was going. When they reached the depot the conductor inquired if the sheriff or police were there, and upon being told that they were they were invited by the conductor aboard the train and were shown "this fellow Freeze that he had a charge against," also Waldron, the plaintiff, whom the conductor said he wanted to hold as a witness. Thereupon Waldron, the plaintiff, was taken to and in jail by Mr. Packard. That the plaintiff put up fifty dollars as bail for his appearance as a witness when needed.

Packard, who at the time of the occasion referred to in the testimony above stated, was bailiff of Princess Anne, and at the time of the trial of the case below was in the employment *Page 446 of the defendant as fireman, testified, on behalf of the defendant, that after entering the car he and the conductor went to the north end of it and there the conductor said, "That is the man there; this other was witness to the whole thing." He did not remember that the conductor said more, and from that he told the plaintiff to come on and the plaintiff went with him. He did not recall that the conductor said there was no charge against the plaintiff, but remembered that he told the plaintiff there was no charge against him, that he was only held as a witness. Oscar M. Jones, telegraph operator at the station, testified "That he received a message in reference to said occurrence from Conductor Truitt, and after phoning it up town the message was destroyed, but to the best of his knowledge the message was `Have officer arrival of No. 50 at Princess Anne.'" William G. Truitt, offered by the defendant, testified that on the 30th day of November, 1907, he was and had been for twenty-six years conductor on defendant's road. That he remembered the occasion when on the 30th day of November, 1907, there was a disorderly passenger.

Freeze, on his train. That he first learned of the misbehavior or misconduct of this passenger when at or near Nassawadox, a station about nineteen miles above Cape Charles. That at the time of the assault made by Freeze on McDorman he was in the Jim Crow car. That when he returned to the car in which Freeze was seated he was pointed out to him by the brakeman.

He spoke to Freeze of his misconduct and told him that he would have to put him off the train and that he would also have to pay for the window glass, which he did. He accused many of those in the car of robbing him, but finally quieted down. Later, however, he charged the plaintiff with robbing him, about which time he, the conductor, sent a message from Hallwood to the operator at Princess Anne, in which he said: "Please have officer at train on arrival of No. 50." Freeze continued his disorderly conduct until he got near to Kings Creek, Md., among other *Page 447 things, threatened the life of the plaintiff and accusing the plaintiff of robbing him. Finally he said to the plaintiff: "My friend, I am going to have that fellow taken off at Princess Anne, and I would suggest that you get off there as a witness." Plaintiff did not say whether he would or would not get off.

When the train arrived at Princess Anne the conductor stepped to the door and asked if the officer was there, and Mr. Long and Mr. Packard stepped forward. With them he entered the car and said: "Gentlemen, here is the man," and walked back to where Freeze was, and further said: "Here is the man who raised all this disturbance, and here is another man who I have suggested to get off and appear as a witness." That he did not say to the sheriff, referring to Waldron, "Take this man off," or "Take this man along as a witness, I have no charge against him." He denied saying, "Yes, we shall have to hold you as a witness" to Waldron's asking him, "Are you going to lock me up." He also denied having any conversation with the plaintiff in which he asked plaintiff about his address; that he did not know the man's name, where he lived or anything about it. The conductor did not hear the officer tell the plaintiff to come along. That he made the suggestion to Waldron to get off as a witness to protect him, as Freeze had threatened his life and accused him of robbing him.

That he sympathized with Waldron and felt sorry for him and wanted to protect him. That Freeze was full of whiskey. That Freeze was disorderly both in Virginia and in Maryland, kept up his disorderly conduct after leaving Peninsula Junction until he got to Princess Anne. Truitt was then asked by the defendant company.

"Now, then, Mr. Truitt, you have stated that you were the conductor of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Company, and you were the conductor at the time of the occurrence to which you have referred. Please state what, if any, authority you have ever had from the railroad company or from any of its officers to arrest or take into custody or cause to be arrested or taken into custody any passenger as a witness *Page 448 to any criminal occurrence or disorder occurring on your train?" To which question the plaintiff objected, and the Court sustaining the objection, the witness was not permitted to answer. To this ruling of the Court the defendant excepted, and this forms the ninth bill of exceptions. We refer to this exception at this time because it will be considered and discussed in connection with the ruling upon the defendant's rejected prayers.

In our opinion, the Court below committed no error in rejecting the third and fourth prayers of the defendant. There is in this case evidence sufficient to go to the jury tending to show a false arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff procured by the servant of the defendant under circumstances that render the defendant liable therefor to the plaintiff "False imprisonment is a wrong akin to the wrong of assault and battery, and consists in imposing by force or threat an unlawful restraint upon a man's freedom of locomotion." Cooley on Torts, 196; Gillingham v. Ohio R.R. Co., 35 W. Va. 595 . And as was said in Kirk Son v. Garrett, 84 Md. 409 : "False imprisonment consists in the unlawful detention of one against his will." "It is the unlawful restraint of a man's liberty by imprisonment or by words and array of force." Tomlin v. Hildreth, 65 N.J. Law, 438. The plaintiff, with others, while a