United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Van Zant, 260 U.S. 459 (1923)

Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Van Zant

No. 142

Argued December 4, 1922

Decided January 2, 1923

260 U.S. 459

Syllabus

1. By forbidding common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to issue free passes for interstate journeys, except to specified classes of persons (Hepburn Act, 1906), Congress took over the

Page 260 U. S. 460

subject to the exclusion of state laws not only as to what passes may be issued and used, but also as to their limitations, conditions and effect upon the rights and responsibilities of the passenger and railway company, respectively. P. 260 U. S. 468.

2. A condition affixed to a free pass, issued under the Hepburn Act, that the person accepting and using it assumes all the risk of accident and personal injury, is valid. P. 260 U. S. 468.

289 Mo. 163, reversed.

Certiorari to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of Missouri affirming a judgment recovered by the respondent from the railway company in an action for personal injuries suffered by her, in that state, while she was traveling from Kansas to Oklahoma by means of a free pass which had been issued to her as the mother of one of the company's employees.

Page 260 U. S. 466