Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co.

Petitioner, a passenger, jumped out of the window of a moving train operated by the respondent, the Southern Pacific Company. He filed a complaint in a California state court to recover damages, alleging that the respondent’s agents knew that he was “out of his normal mind” and should not be accepted as a passenger or else should be guarded and that, having accepted him as a passenger, they left him unguarded and failed to stop the train before he finally fell to the ground. At respondent’s request the case was removed to the Federal District Court at San Francisco on the ground of diversity…