Denver & Rio Grande Railway v. Harris

Citations

• 122 U.S. 597
• 7 S. Ct. 1286
• 30 L. Ed. 1146
• 1887 U.S. LEXIS 2140

Syllabus

<p>If a claimant of real estate, out of possession, resorts to force and violence amounting to a breach of the peace to obtain possession from another claimant who is in peaceable possession, and personal injury arises thereupon to the latter, the party using such force and violence is liable in damages for the injury without regard to the legal title, or to the right of possession.</p> <p>Iron Mountain and Helena Railroad v.' Johnson, 119 U. S. 608, affirmed and applied.</p> <p>A corporation is liable for civiliter torts committed by its servants and agents done by its authority, whether express or implied.</p> <p>In trespass on the case to recover for. injuries caused by gunshot wouuds inflicted by defendant’s servants, evidence of the loss of power to have offspring, resulting directly and proximately from the nature of the wound, may be- received .and considered by the jury, although the declaration does not specify such loss as one of the results of the wound.</p> <p>In an action of trespass on the case against a corporation to recover damages for injuries inflicted by its servants in a forcible and violent seizure óf a railroad, punitive damages, within the sum claimed in the .declaration, may be awarded by the jury, if it appears to their satisfaction that the defendant’s officers and servants, in the illegal assault complained of, employécl the force witli.bad intent, and in pursuance of an unlawful purpose, wantonly disturbing the peace of the community and endangering life.</p> <p>The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Té Railway Company was in peaceable possession of a railroad from Alamosa to Pueblo, and while so in possession, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, by an armed force of several hundred men, acting' as its agents and employes, and under its vice-president and assistant general manager, attacked with deadly weapons the agents and employes of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Té Railway Company having charge of the railroad, and forcibly drove the