Warner v. Southern Pacific Co.

Citations

• 113 Cal. 105
• 45 P. 187
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 752

Syllabus

<p>Railroads—Wrongful Ejection of Passenger—Conflicting Evidence. When the evidence is conflicting as to whether the plaintiff was forcibly ejected from a railroad car for nonpayment of fare, after he has surrendered his ticket to'the conductor, a verdict for the plaintiff cannot be disturbed upon appeal for insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict.</p> <p>Id.—Excessive Damages.—A verdict of five thousand dollars damages for the wrongful ejection of a passenger is excessive, and grossly beyond all reasonable limit, where there is no pretense that the plaintiff suffered any serious inj ury, and he claimed only ten dollars for loss of time and five dollars for his doctor’s bill, and where, under any view of the evi« dence most favorable to the plaintiff, the damages for humiliation or injury to his dignity should not have exceeded a few hundred dollars at the utmost limit.</p> <p>Id.—Exemplary Damages not Permissible.—A railroad company cannot be mulcted in exemplary damages for the wanton or malicious acts of its conductor in wrongfully ejecting a passenger, unless it either authorized or ratified the malicious acts; and, in the absence of such authority or ratification, the passenger can only recover from the railroad company the actual damage sustained by him from such ejection.</p>