Woodhouse v. Rio Grande Railway Co.

Citations

• 67 Tex. 416
• 3 S.W. 323
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 897

Syllabus

<p>1. Railways—Statute Construed.—The laws giving penalties for receiving more than the maximum rates for transportation of passengers and freights by railway companies, in force prior to the passage of the Act of April 10, 1883, did not make the willfulness of the charge a fact on which the right to recover depended. To relieve against this hardship, the proviso to the tenth section of that Act was inserted.</p> <p>3. Same.—Under Article 4357, Revised Statutes, the amendment thereto of April 19, 1879, and the Act of April 10, 1883, it is only in cases of unjust discrimination by railway companies that the penalty against them is given.</p> <p>3. Same—Statute Construed.—Thus protected as railway companies are from liability for inadvertent discrimination in the management of their roads, there was no necessity for further protection, such as is given in the proviso to the tenth section of the Act of April 10, 1883.</p> <p>4. Same.—It is only when an overcharge for transportation, or a charge not permitted by law, is made by a railway company that notice to the company and a refusal to refund are required, before an action to recover-the penalty can be maintained.</p> <p>5. Same.—When intention, design or knowledge at the time an act is done, is an element essential to liability for the act; to require notice to be-given by the injured party, before the intentional wrong doer could be made liable, would be to require the doing of a useless thing.</p> <p>6. Same—Notice oe Unjust Discrimination.—No notice is required by the statute to be given to a railway company in cases of unjust discrimination in freight charges, and the proviso to the tenth section of the Act of April 10, 1883, has application only in cases in which charges for freight or passengers in excess of the maximum rates fixed by law, have been made.</p> <p>7. Railway Companies.—Railway companies voluntarily assume duties to the public from which they can not free themselves by surrendering the management