Southern Light & Traction Co. v. Compton

Citations

• 86 Miss. 269

Syllabus

<p>1. Street Railroad. Passengers. Separation of races. Laws 1904, ch 99, p. 140. Ejection of female passenger. Justification. Punitwe damages.</p> <p>Where a female passenger was rudely ejected from a street car hy the conductor and compelled to walk some distance in the mud, because of her refusal to comply with an unwarrantable demand of the conductor that she change her seat in the car:</p> <p>(а) The street railway company cannot invoke in its defense the provisions of the statute, Laws 1904, ch. 99, p. 140, requiring the separation of the white and colored races on street cars, and authorizing the use of adjustable screens, for separating them, and the ejection from the cars of all passengers who refuse to accommodate themselves to the space allotted to his race, if the company has never adopted the appliances required by the statute, whatever it may have done in an effort to evade the law on the subject; and</p> <p>(б) Punitive damages may, in the discretion of the jury, be awarded her.</p> <p>3. Same. Concrete case. What not a compliance with law.</p> <p>Signs eight by twelve inches in size, having painted thereon the words “White” and “Colored,” respectively, and supported on the backs of seats in street ears, are not “adjustable screens” within the meaning of Laws 1904, p. 140, ch. 99, requiring the separation of the white and colored race on street cars, but permitting the use for that purpose of adjustable screens, to be moved about as the needs of the traffic may require.</p>