Lewis v. New York Sleeping Car Co.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Two ACTIONS, each with a count in contract and a count in tort, to recover for the loss of the plaintiff’s property, alleged to have been stolen while the plaintiff was riding as a passenger in the defendant’s car, through the negligence of the defendant’s servant.
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Two ACTIONS, each with a count in contract and a count in tort, to recover for the loss of the plaintiff’s property, alleged to have been stolen while the plaintiff was riding as a passenger in the defendant’s car, through the negligence of the defendant’s servant. The cases were tried together in the Superior Court, before Thompson, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows: It was agreed that the defendant owned and managed a certain sleeping car, called Pontiac, which was run on the roads of the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, and the New York Central and Hudson…
1Opinion of the CourtMorton, C. J.
The use of sleeping cars upon railroads is modern, and there are few adjudicated cases as to the extent of the duties and liabilities of the owners of such cars. They must be ascertained by appljdng to the new condition of things the comprehensive and elastic principles of the common law. When a person buys the right to the use of a berth in a sleeping car, it is entirely clear that the ticket which he receives is not intended to, and does not, express all the terms of the contract into which he enters. Such ticket, like the ordinary railroad ticket, is little more than a symbol intended to…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Woodruff Sleeping & Parlor Coach Co. v. DiehlIndiana Supreme Court · 1882
- Pullman Car Co. v. Gardner, Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County1883
3Cited by26 opinions
- Goldstein v. . Pullman Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1917
- Carpenter v. . N.Y., N.H. H.R.R. Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1891
- Adams v. . New Jersey Steamboat Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1896
- Cooney v. Pullman Palace Car Co.Supreme Court of Alabama · 1898
- Bacon v. Pullman Co.Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · 1908
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