Story Case

Richard Folsom purchased a ticket at the station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Flora, Illinois, intending to ride on the company's Sunday excursion train to St. Louis, Mo. After purchasing his ticket he visited a nearby restaurant and ate his breakfast. Subsequently, he tried to board the train after it had left the station. The cars were crowded, and he was compelled to hang on the steps, finally dropping off and thus injuring himself. The conductor and engineer saw him on the steps, but made no effort either to assist him or to stop the train. When he brought suit to recover for his injuries suffered as a passenger, the company denied its liability on that ground. Can he recover?

Ruling Court Case. Elizabeth Webster Vs. Fitchburg Railway Company, Volume 161, Massachusetts Reports, Page 298

William Webster lived in Somerville and worked in Massachusetts. He usually boarded the 8:40 A. M. train on the Fitchburg line at Union Square station for Boston. One morning, while the 8:40 A. M. train was standing at the station receiving passengers, William Webster came running rapidly from a public street upon the company's premises, for the purpose of making his train, standing on the outward track. While crossing the inward track he was struck by a westbound train, scheduled to stop at Union Square station at 8:42 A. M., and was instantly killed. At the time of his death William Webster had in his pocket a ticket entitling him to passage that morning to Boston. His wife brings this action for damages. She claims that since he had a ticket, and was upon the premises of the company, that he was a passenger, to whom the company owed a high degree of care.

Mr. Justice Knowlton said: "One becomes a passenger on a railroad when he puts himself into the care of the railroad company to be transported under a contract, and is received and accepted as a passenger by the company. In the present case, after the arrival of the plaintiff on the defendant's premises, there was no time when he presented himself in a proper manner to be carried. He was running rapidly all the time, without precaution for his safety, toward a point directly in front of an incoming train. He did not put himself in readiness to be taken as a passenger, and present himself in a proper way. If we treat his approach as a request for passage, and if we conceive of the railroad company as being present, and speaking by a representative who saw him, there was no instant when the answer to his request would not have been, 'We will not accept you as a passenger while you are exposing yourself to such peril. We do not invite persons to become passengers while they are rushing into danger in such a way.' " Judgment was given for the company.

Ruling Law. Story Case Answer

The fact that a person has purchased and has in his possession a ticket does not of itself constitute a person a passenger. It may be one condition to his becoming a passenger, but that alone is not sufficient. The carrier might still refuse, for good reason or for no reason, to accept him as a passenger. If the carrier had no justifiable reason in refusing to accept him as a passenger, the person would be able to sue the carrier for breach of contract, but would not be able to maintain an action for damages on the ground that he was a passenger because he had a ticket.

Also, carriers frequently have good reasons for not accepting persons as passengers, as, for instance, where they are boisterous, intoxicated, or are offensive to the welfare and health of the other passengers. Also, if a person does not present himself at the proper time he is not a passenger. Thus, where one jumped on a train after it had departed, and the doors were closed, he was not a passenger, although the engineer and conductor knew he was on the train. Folsom, in the Story Case, did not present himself at the proper time, and was not a passenger at the time of his injury.