Chapter XII: Omnibuses, Stages, and Horse-Cars

Nearly every one has occasion, more or less often, to travel over the public ways in the coaches of passenger carriers. Whoever undertakes to carry passengers and their baggage for hire from place to place is bound to use the utmost care and diligence in providing safe and suitable coaches, harnesses, horses, and coachmen, in order to prevent such injuries as human care and foresight can guard against.

If an accident happens from a defect in the coach or harness which might have been discovered and remedied upon careful and thorough examination, such accident must be ascribed to negligence, for which the owner is liable in case of injury to a passenger happening by reason of such accident.

On the other hand, where the accident arises from a hidden and internal defect, which careful and thorough examination would not disclose, and which could not be guarded against by the exercise of sound judgment and the most vigilant oversight, then the proprietor is not liable for the injury, but the misfortune must be borne by the sufferer as one of that class of injuries for which the law can afford no redress in the form of a pecuniary recompense.

If a passenger, in peril arising from an accident for which the proprietors are responsible, is in so dangerous a situation as to render his leaping from the coach an act of reasonable precaution, and he leaps therefrom and breaks a limb, the proprietors are answerable to him in damages, though he might safely have retained his seat.[52]

[52] 9 Met. 1.

When the proprietors of stages or street-car coaches, which are already full and overloaded, stop their coaches, whether at the signal or not of would-be passengers, and open the doors for their entrance, they must be considered as inviting them to ride, and thereby assuring them that their passage will be a safe one, at least so far as dependent upon the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care, diligence, and skill, on their part, in driving and managing their horses and coaches; and, in fact, they are rather to be held responsible for such increased watchfulness and solicitous care, skill, and attention, as the crowded condition of the vehicle requires. If, under such circumstances, a passenger is thrown out of or off the coach by its violent jerk at starting or stopping, or in any other way through the negligence of the proprietors or their agents, he may hold them liable for his injuries.[53] A passenger must pay his fare in advance, if demanded, otherwise he may have to pay a fine for evading fare; and if he is riding free, the proprietors are not responsible, except for gross negligence; and he must also properly and securely pack his baggage, if he expects to recover damages in case of loss. A mail-coach is protected by act of Congress from obstructions, but is subject in all other respects to "the law of the road."[54]

[53] 103 Mass. 391.

[54] 1 Watts, Pa. 360.

If the proprietors of coaches used for the common carriage of persons are guilty of gross carelessness or neglect in the conduct and management of the same while in such use, they are liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or to imprisonment not exceeding three years.[55] And if a driver of a stage-coach or other vehicle for the conveyance of passengers for hire, when a passenger is within or upon such coach or vehicle, leaves the horses thereof without some suitable person to take the charge and guidance of them, or without fastening them in a safe and prudent manner, he may be imprisoned two months or fined fifty dollars.[56]

[55] Pub. St. c. 202, § 34.

[56] Pub. St. c. 202, § 35.