Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. Sanders
Mississippi Supreme Court
From the circuit court of Quitman county. Hon. Samuel C. Cook, Judge. Mrs. Sanders, the appellee, was the plaintiff in the court below; the railroad company, the appellant, was defendant there. The suit was for damages caused by the action of the railroad- company’s servants in refusing to remove the carcasses of mules killed by the train of the railroad company and hurled from the track to a point very close to plaintiff’s dwelling house.
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From the circuit court of Quitman county. Hon. Samuel C. Cook, Judge. Mrs. Sanders, the appellee, was the plaintiff in the court below; the railroad company, the appellant, was defendant there. The suit was for damages caused by the action of the railroad- company’s servants in refusing to remove the carcasses of mules killed by the train of the railroad company and hurled from the track to a point very close to plaintiff’s dwelling house. Plaintiff requested the servants of the railroad company to remove the carcasses, but they refused'to do so in a manner which the court pronounced to be…
1Opinion of the CourtTruly, J.
The railroad company should take heart of grace at the smallness of the verdict in this case, instead of complaining that punitive damages were awarded. If the statement of the appellee be true — and it was not only accepted by the jury, but its truth forces itself upon each individual member of the court — a more flagrant, unwarranted, and oppressive violation and trampling upon the rights of the public was never presented to an appellate court. To willfully commit a trespass upon the rights of an individual is of itself sufficient to permit the ^warding of punitive damages, though committed…
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