Samuels v. Richmond &c. Railroad

Citations

• 35 S.C. 493
• 14 S.E. 943
• 1892 S.C. LEXIS 196

Syllabus

<p>1. Actions — Exemplary Damages. — A tort that sounds in exemplary damages is where some right of person or property is invaded maliciously, violently, wantonly, or with reckless disregard of social or civil obligations; and to recover such damages, plaintiff must allege the elements of such a tort, and to such allegations the testimony must be restricted.</p> <p>2. Passengers — Exemplary Damages. — Where a railroad company fails to deliver a passenger, according to its contract, at the station to which it sold a ticket, either by stopping as the train passed or by returning the passenger thither, the company is responsible, unless it shows some controlling exigency which prevented such delivery. It is liable in exemplary damages, if such failure and the ejection of the passenger from the train at some other point, were wilful and without just excuse.</p> <p>3. Exemplary Damages. — The damages awarded against a person or corporation for an injury so inflicted as to justify exemplary damages, as herein defined, are intended not only as compensation to the party injured, but also as a punishment to the wrong-doer.</p> <p>4. Ibid. — Jury.—The judge was requested to charge “that while the jury are the sole judges of the effect of the proof, it is the province of the court to say whether there is or is not proof going to establish every issuable fact in this case, and that in this case there is no proof to show wilfulness or oppressiveness or cruelty on the part of the conductor, without which the jury can only find a verdict for actual damages sustained by the plaintiff, and that in the absence of such proof, a verdict for punitive or exemplary damages cannot be sustained.” Held, that the request was properly refused, because not broad enough. Moreover, while a judge may determine in the first instance whether there is any evidence in support of the facts in issue, he cannot in submitting a case to the jury, instruct them that any of such facts have been proved.</p> <