Citations
- 43 Ill. 176
Full opinion text
Mr. Justice Breese
delivered the opinion of the Court:
The principal questions in this cause arise upon the instructions given on behalf of the plaintiff, and on those refused as asked by the defendants, the appellants here, and on the measme and amount of damages, the former of which we will notice.
The first instruction asked by the plaintiff, and given, was this:
“ It was the duty of the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company to furnish a convenient and accessible place for the sale of tickets for passengers, with a competent person in attendance ready to sell them, which should be open and accessible to all passengers for a reasonable time before the departure of each train, and up to the time of its actual departure ; and if the jury believe from the evidence that the plaintiff, by and through Allison, made application at the ticket-office of the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company, at Mattoon, for a ticket from that place to Charleston, at any time within ten or fifteen minutes before the actual departure of its train, and he was. unable to get a ticket in consequence of the ticket-office being closed, then the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company had no right to charge him upon the train any more than usual ticket price between Mattoon and Charleston.”
The first instruction asked on behalf of the defendants and refused, was as follows:
“ That if they find from the evidence that the defendant, St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company, has a convenient and accessible office, supplied with and for the sale of tickets in Mattoon; that on the evening of the alleged trespass the same was open, with a competent person in attendance to sell tickets for an hour before and up to the expiration of the time fixed by public notice for the departure of the train on which plaintiff took passage; that the plaintiff got up'on said train to travel from Mattoon to Charleston without procuring a ticket and refused to pay, or cause to be paid, to the conductor of said train the amount of fare or passage money required by the regular tariff of said company for passengers who fail to produce tickets, and that by reason of such failure of plaintiff to pay or cause to be paid such fare or passage money he was expelled from the cars of said company by the servants or employees of said company at a regular station on said railroad, then in that case the jury must find the defendants not guilty.”
The point of difference is obvious. While the instruction for the plaintiff requires the ticket-office to be kept open up to the time “ of the actual departure of the train,” that for the defendant limits that duty “ to the expiration of the time fixed by public notice ” for the departure of the train.
It is insisted by the appellee, that the law is as declared in the instruction given in his behalf, and has been so held by this court in the case of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v. Parks, 18 Ill. 460, and reiterated in St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad Company v. Dalby, 19 id. 364, and that the instruction is an exact transcript of the language of this court, in the cases cited.
In this the counsel is not mistaken. In the case first cited, this court said: “ To justify a railroad company in making a discrimination in the fare against the passenger who neglects to purchase a ticket at the company’s office, the company must see to it that the fault was not that of its own agent instead of the passenger. To justify this discrimination, every reasonable and proper facility must be afforded to the passenger to procure-his ticket. They must furnish a convenient and accessible place for the sale of the tickets, with a competent person in attendance ready to sell them, which should be open and accessible to-all passengers for a reasonable time before the departure of each train and up to the time of its actual departure, so that it shall really be a case of neglect and not of necessity on the part of the passenger, and not the fault of the company.” Further on, in the next paragraph but one, the court call these remarks “ suggestions,” and give the reason why they were made, the point to which they apply not being in the case-before them. The controversy there was this: Parks, an attorney-at-law, residing at Aurora, in Kane county, took the train there, without purchasing a ticket, for Batavia, the nearest point to Genoa, where the court was held, and which Parks was going to attend. He paid the extra fare required of those who pay on the car from Aurora to Batavia. At the latter place he changed his mind, and, as it was wet, disagreeable weather, he concluded, without purchasing a ticket, to proceed oh to Junction, another station on the road. The ticket-fare from Batavia to Junction was twenty cents, which Parks offered to pay to the conductor, but he refused it, demanding, under his instructions, an additional five cents, which Parks refusing to pay, the conductor put him off the train. This was the case in which the “ suggestions ” above quoted were made. The court, and the learned judge, afterward so long the honored chief justice of the court, who delivered the opinion, were well aware of the fact that the time of the arrival and departure of railroad trains was fixed, and made notorious by publication and notice in every conceivable mode, so that it may be safely asserted, the business and traveling public, all those whose pursuits required that mode of conveyance, and especially those living in the towns through which railroads pass, were perfectly familiar with the fact, and almost any inhabitant, if inquired