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, Sec. 34.
[56] Pub. St. c. 202, Sec. 35.