“I presume,” I continued, still indulging my unquenchable thirst for knowledge, “that when a conductor gets into his cranium the idea that it is the proper thing to put one off, the best plan is quietly to submit to the inscrutable and go?”
“Undoubtedly—spoken like a veritable Solon. In such an evil case it will be wise and prudent to gather together one’s surroundings and belongings, and peaceably succumb to the powers that be, for if you leave any articles behind you, you cannot recover their value, unless you can show that the company got them, or that the violence or suddenness of your ejection rendered it impossible for you to take them with you and so they were lost. This point Mr. Glover had the pleasure of settling. He was trying to do the London and Southwestern by giving half his ticket to a friend to save expenses, and when put out of the cars left a pair of glasses behind him, and the court told him that he had only himself to blame for the loss.[399] The courts never like the idea of mulcting railway companies in heavy damages for the sins of commission of their servants and conductors; and so where a verdict of £50 was given against the G. W. R. because the conductor put the plaintiff off the train, though the inconvenience to him was a mere bagatelle and the conductor had acted bonâ fide under an impression that the fare had not been paid, and had used no harshness or violence, a new trial was granted on the ground of excessive damages, and the Chief Justice stigmatized the verdict as ‘outrageous:’ but there the jurors of our Lady the Queen and my lord differed; and so on the second trial the yeomen of the county gave the man only £5 less, and the company submitted.[400] And in another case the same Canadian court spoke regretfully of the exorbitant amount of damages (£50) where the company were not otherwise concerned than through the act of their conductor, who thought that he had only been doing his duty, as England expects every man to do.[401] And where an American jury gave $1,000, no special damage being shown, a new trial was granted.”[402]
“To return to the question of tickets.” I said, “I saw an English decision the other day, which shows how one may save a little in going to an intermediate place, where opposition lines are running to some place beyond.”
“How is that?” was asked.
“Why, often if two lines run to B. or there is an excursion thither, the fare is cheaper than to A., which, perhaps, is not half the distance, and one can buy a ticket to B. and get off at A. if he so wishes.”
“Would that be a safe dodge?”
“It appears to have been decided in England that one may pay his fare to one place, and yet leave the cars at some intermediate place where the train stops, although the fare to the latter place may be greater than it is to the former.”[403]
“I saw another rather funny decision. By a by-law, passengers not delivering up their tickets when required were made liable to a penalty; a man took a return ticket, yet after returning to the place whence he started, did not get off but went on to a further station, without, however, any intention to defraud; it was held that he could not be convicted under the by-law, for it only applied to the case of a person wilfully refusing to show his ticket when he had one, while here the man had none! It was held, also, that the by-law only applied to people travelling minus a ticket with intent to defraud.[404] Where a gentleman took tickets for himself and three servants, keeping the tickets in his own custody and telling the guard that he had them, and the servants were permitted to enter the car without having or showing each his ticket, the court held that the company were estopped from raising the objection that the by-law as to the production and delivery up of tickets had been infringed.”[405]
“I believe,” I remarked, when a pause enabled me to squeeze in a remark, “a company if it chooses may allow a discount off tickets bought before entering the cars; but that those who enter without their magic scraps of card-board cannot claim such indulgence,[406] even though they have been prevented purchasing them from the fact of the office being closed.[407] Although, I believe, it has been held by some courts that the increased rate cannot be collected unless every proper and reasonable facility has been afforded for procuring tickets at the station;[408] and that if a man, without any default on his part, is prevented getting a ticket, he may pay the conductor the excess of fare under protest, and recover it back by suit, or else he may insist upon being taken at ticket rate, and sue for damages if the company refuse.”[409]
“I see that in England some companies have a by-law that if a passenger loses his ticket he shall be liable to pay the full fare from the most distant place on the line.”