“Check this,” I exclaimed.
“Take it into the car with you,” he replied.
“I won’t; you must check it; there’s a handle,” I returned.
“I won’t; handle be hanged; you must take it,” he retorted.
“All right,” I answered, inwardly resolving that as a check had been refused me when demanded, the company should pay me the penalty of eight dollars, as well as the costs of the action which I should bring against them for it, and that I would insist upon the conductor in charge of the train refunding me the fare that I had paid for my ticket.[2] I was sorry now that I had bought the ticket in advance, for under the circumstances they would have had no right to collect or receive from me any toll or fare.[284]
I was determined to teach railway companies their duties, and baggage-masters are far too fond of refusing to check small parcels or bags; and at way stations, in their wisdom, even decline sometimes to check large trunks, although the law of this Canada of ours says, “Checks shall be affixed by an agent or servant to every parcel of baggage having a handle, loop or fixture of any kind thereupon (though what may be included in the latter term goodness only knows), and a duplicate shall be given to the passenger delivering the same.”[285]
It was not many minutes before I found cause of action number three against the respectable railway company to whose tender mercies I was about to commit my precious self. The law directs that “the trains shall be started and run at regular hours to be fixed by public notice,”[286] but most locomotives—their drivers and conductors—treat that clause with a contempt truly philosophical. The train by which I desired to embark was overdue for half an hour, according to the time-table which hung mockingly on the wall, so I looked about me to see if there had been “put up on the outside of the station-house over the platform of the station in some conspicuous place, a written or printed notice signed by the station-master, stating to the best of his knowledge and belief the time when such over-due train might be expected to reach the station,” as it was the duty of the company to do. Of course, no such notice was visible, such enactments being too often deemed effete from the very day they appear on the statute book, so I still further comforted and consoled my wounded feelings by the thought that for this neglect or omission they were liable to an action at my suit, in which full costs might be recovered[287] (the latter was an object of importance just now).
I now retired into the waiting-room to ponder over the business that had thus unexpectedly turned up. I knew that few men were bold enough to fight a great railway company on any question, and especially one involving a small amount, and that as a result of this railways have been virtually exempt from the penalties attaching to many breaches of duty and of contract which they are daily committing; but I determined to sacrifice myself for the good of my fellows. I was eager, too, to see my name figuring in the reports.
I also now began to reflect that if the train was much later, I would miss my appointments, and then cause of action number four would accrue. For it is as clear as daylight that if a railway company publishes or authorizes the publication of a time-table, representing that a train will start at a particular hour for a particular place, or arrive at a particular hour, and through negligence no train is prepared or arrives, the company is responsible in damages to all persons who have acted upon the faith of the representation, and have been deceived and put to expense, and have sustained damage thereby;[288] but if they give proper notice they will not be liable for any necessary delay.[289] A company announced that their trains would be punctual as far as possible; though, they said, they did not undertake that they would run exactly according to the time-tables, and that they would not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unpunctuality; the court, however, held, that a delay of twenty-seven minutes en route between Liverpool and Leeds was evidence of negligence or want of reasonable efforts to be punctual.[290] A notice that a company will not be responsible for deviations from the time-tables, unless the detentions are caused by the wilful neglect of their employees, is practically invalid.[291] The company make a continuous representation whilst they continue to hold out printed or written papers as being their time-tables, and they thereby make a public profession and representation that they will exercise their vocation of common carriers, and dispatch passengers or goods, as the case may be, to certain specified places at or about the time named in such tables; and if they fail to do so they commit a breach of their duty as common carriers, and are guilty of a fraudulent representation, which may be the foundation of an action for deceit by any one who, relying on the representation, tenders himself or his goods for conveyance at the appointed time, and finds there is no train about to start.[292]
Though neither time-table nor advertisement is an actual warranty for the arrival and departure of trains at the time named, still companies are unquestionably liable for any want of punctuality which they could have avoided by the use of due care or skill; nor can they plead any excuse, the existence of which was known to them when the tables were published.[293] And when there has been a change of time, due care should be used in notifying the public.[294]