Bethea v. Northeastern Railroad

Citations

• 26 S.C. 91
• 1 S.E. 372
• 1887 S.C. LEXIS 8

Syllabus

<p>1. The special contract of a round trip railroad ticket to New Orleans required a restamping of the ticket in Baltimore to make it good for the return trip', but as this requirement was inconsistent with the whole tenor of the contract, and as the holder was in no wise misled thereby, the court construed the word “Baltimore” to b'e a misprint for “New Orleans,” and that the special contract requiring a restamp for the return trip was not thereby invalidated.</p> <p>2. Where the purcháser of a railroad ticket signed his name to the contract printed thereon, it must be assumed, in the absence of fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake, that he read the contract and assented to its conditions.</p> <p>3. The stipulation in a railroad ticket, that it shall not be good for the return trip unless the holder identifies himself to the satisfaction of ihe ticket agent of the terminal line, and is stamped by him, is not unreasonable nor contrary to the policy of the law.</p> <p>4. And, under the express terms of the contract, such agent, even if the agent of the initial road, is the party to determine the sufficiency of the identification, and it could not be submitted to the jury to find whether or not the agent had been satisfied.</p> <p>5. But where a railroad company issues a through ticket for itself and as agent for other lines on the route, and the ticket is to be restamped for return passage by the ticket agent of the terminal line, such agent is thereby made the agent of all the companies, and the initial road is responsible only for its own breaches of the contract.</p> <p>6. The holder of a railroad ticket has no cause of action against the company for failing to carry him on his ticket, where he declined to surrender his ticket and voluntarily paid his fare to the conductor. ■</p>