Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/641

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

626 FEDERAL REPORTER. �The defendant put in a general deniai. �In the case against the Union Railway & Transit Company, of St, Louis, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant was a common carrier of passengers for hire in cars drawn by steam-power over a certain railway extending from a point in the city of East St. Louis, in the state of Illinois, to a point in the city of St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, over a bridge across the Mississippi river, which railway said defendant controlled and managed ; that while the plaintiff was lawfully in a car under the control and management of the defend- ant, on said railroad in the city of East St. Louis, to be transported as a passenger by defendant to said city of St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, and while it was the defendant's duty to carry him safely over the road to said city of St. Louis, Missouri, said car was, through the carelessness and unskilfulneas of the defendant, thrown from the track of said road ; and that in consequence the plaintiff was greatly injured, etc. In this case, also, the plaintiff asked for $50,000 damages. �The defendant denied that it was a common carrier, and also denied all the other material allegations of the petition. �The cases were tried before a jury. �The evidence introduced tended to prove the following faeta : �In December, 1878, the plaintiff purchased a through ticket froni New York to St. Louis, Missouri, one of the coupons of which called for a passage over the Indianapolis & St. Louis Eailroad. �Before reaching East St. Louis the conductor of the train took up the coupon of plaintiff's ticket covering the ride from Indianapolis to St. Louis, Missouri, and gave plaintiff a ticket or check entitling him to ride from East St. Loiiis over the bridge and through the tunnel to the place of his destination — St. Louis, Missouri. There was a contract between the railroad company and the Union Eailway & Transit Company by which the last-named company hauled all the cars of the former between St. Louis and East St. Louis, back and forth, for a specified consideration ; the track of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Eailroad Company not extending beyond East St. Louis. Trains going westward were delivered to the Union Eailway & Transit Company at St. Louis. �The track of the Ohio & Mississippi Eailroad Company crosses the tracka of the Union Eailway & Transit Company in East St. Louis about 400 feet north of the Eelay depot, at right angles. At this Crossing a watchman in tha» employ of the latter dompany is con- stantly stationed. The morning of the accident the train of the ��� �