1. A decision of a state supreme court denying an interstate
carrier an immunity based upon a stipulation on an interstate
passenger ticket
held reviewable by certiorari and not by
writ of error. P.
265 U. S.
100.
2. A ticket for interstate passage over several railroads bore a
printed stipulation limiting the selling carrier's liability to its
own lines.
Held that, by accepting and using the ticket,
though without reading it, a passenger must be presumed to have
agreed to the stipulation, thereby establishing a contract,
prima facie valid and binding in a state court. P.
265 U. S. 101.
156 Ark. 583 reversed.
Error and certiorari to a judgment of the Supreme Court of
Arkansas affirming a judgment for damages in an action against the
above named railroad company for an assault committed on the
plaintiff while traveling over the line of a connecting
carrier.
Page 265 U. S. 100
MR. JUSTICE McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The writ of error was improvidently granted, and must be
dismissed. The application for the writ of certiorari is granted.
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry. v. Starbird,
243 U. S. 592; Act
Sept. 6, 1916, c. 448, § 2, 39 Stat. 726, amending Judicial Code §
237.
Respondent purchased from petitioner a round-trip coupon ticket
issued at its office in Forrest City, Arkansas, which authorized
her to travel over its line to Texarkana, Arkansas, thence over the
Texas Pacific Railroad to Longview, Texas, and from the latter
point over the International & Great Northern Railroad to
Houston, Texas, and return via the same route. Claiming that, while
on the line of the last-named company she was assaulted by the
auditor, she instituted an action to recover damages from the
selling carrier in the Circuit Court for St. Francis County,
Arkansas.
Defending, the carrier set up and established that the ticket
called for passage over three independent lines and contained the
following: "In selling this ticket and checking baggage hereon, the
selling carrier acts only as agent and is not responsible beyond
its own lines."
And it maintained that any assault upon respondent was by the
auditor of the International & Great Northern Railroad Company
for whose acts petitioner was not responsible.
The ticket was purchased over the telephone. When respondent
reached the depot, she paid the purchase price and was handed the
ticket in an envelope. She did not sign or inspect it.
The trial court denied a peremptory instruction in favor of
petitioner, and the case was sent to the jury upon the theory that
the assault constituted a breach of the initial carrier's contract
for safe transportation. Judgment went in favor of respondent for
both compensatory
Page 265 U. S. 101
and punitive damages, and was affirmed as to the former by the
Supreme Court of Arkansas. This was error.
An interstate carrier is entitled to the presumption that its
business is being conducted lawfully. Acceptance and use of the
ticket sufficed to establish an agreement,
prima facie
valid, which limited the selling carrier's liability. Mere failure
of the passenger to read matter plainly placed before her cannot
overcome the presumption of assent.
New York Central &
Hudson River R. Co. v. Beaham, 242 U.
S. 148,
242 U. S. 151;
Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Ry. v. Woodbury,
254 U. S. 357,
254 U. S.
360.
Reversed.
