Railroad Co. v. Brown

Citations

• 84 U.S. 445
• 21 L. Ed. 675
• 17 Wall. 445
• 1873 U.S. LEXIS 1383

Syllabus

<p>1. An act of Congress, in eases o'f a suit against a railroad 'company which it incorporated, authorized service of process “on any director of the company.” On a suit brought, the marshal made a return of service¡ July 6th, 1868, on J. S., “ reputed to be one of the directors of the eom- . pany.” The record showed'that on the 5th of May, 1866, J. S. was, in fact, one of the directors. Held, sufficient service, in the absence of proof, that J. S. was-not one.of the directors at the time of service; and the defendant having appeared and moved, for want of sufficient service, the'opening of a judgment which had been obtained for default; which motion as atked for, the court refused, but granted on condition that the defendant appeared ; which he did, and proceeded to trial.</p> <p>2. A railroad corporation run on the joint account of a receiver of part of it and the lessees of the remaining part, held liable for injuries committed, by a servant of the parties working it, upon the person of a passenger whom 'such servant improperly expelled from a car, into which the passenger had entered; the railroad corporation having allowed tickets to be issued in its own name, in the same form as it had done before the road was leased, and the passenger, for aught that appeared, not knowing that the railroad corporation was not itself managing the road.</p> <p>3. An act of Congress passed in 1863, which gave certain privileges which it asked to a railroad corporation, enacted also'that “ no person shall bo excluded from the cars on account of color.” Held, that this meant that persons of color should travel in the same cars that white ones did, and along with them in such cars ¡ and that the enactment was not satisfied by the company’s providing cars assigned exclusively to people of color, though they were as good as those which they assigned exclusively for white persons, and in fact the very cars which were, at certain times, assigned exclusively to white persons.</p>