West Chester & Philadelphia Railroad v. Miles
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. This was an action of trespass, brought by Mary E. Miles against the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad Company, for removing her from the car by a conductor on defendants’ railroad. Mary E. Miles, a colored woman, the plaintiff, got into the car of the defendants below, at Philadelphia, to go to Oxford, and took a seat at or near the middle of it.
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Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. This was an action of trespass, brought by Mary E. Miles against the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad Company, for removing her from the car by a conductor on defendants’ railroad. Mary E. Miles, a colored woman, the plaintiff, got into the car of the defendants below, at Philadelphia, to go to Oxford, and took a seat at or near the middle of it. A rule of the road required the conductor to make colored persons sit at one end of the car. He got a seat for her at the place fixed by the rule, and asked her to take it. She declined…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, November 4th 1867, by
Agnew, J.
— It is admitted no one can be excluded from carriage by a public carrier on account of color, religious belief, political relations or prejudice. But the defendants in their point asked the court to say that if the jury find that the seat which the plaintiff was directed to take was in all respects a comfortable, safe and convenient seat, not inferior in any of these respects to the one she was directed to leave, she could not recover. The case, therefore, involves no assertion of the inferiority of the negro to the white…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Hobbs v. FoggSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1837
3Cited by14 opinions
- Meade v. DennistoneCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1938
- Hopkins v. City of RichmondSupreme Court of Virginia · 1915
- Berea College v. CommonwealthCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1906
- Brumfield v. Consolidated Coach CorporationCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) · 1931
- Morrison v. StateTennessee Supreme Court · 1905
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