The Price of a Midnight Ejection
After refusing to pay a fare, a passenger was cast into the rain at night, leading to a legal showdown over transit rights and railroad corporate power.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In the United States court yesterday, a defense was developed in an interesting damage suit brought by Charles Magee against the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. On December 30, 1890, Magee bought a cheap ticket from St. Paul to Whatcom via Tacoma for $15. The ticket was honored by the railroad, but not by one of the company's steamers. While between Tacoma and Whatcom, the ticket was rejected by the captain of the steamer, and Magee, being unwilling to pay the fare, was put off the boat. He says he was forcibly put ashore in the rain at a desolate place in the woods, remote from any landing or habitation, at 11 o'clock at night. He filed a suit in the Whatcom county court, but the case was transferred by the railway company to the United States court. The defendant demurred to the complaint and demanded that it be made more definite, asking that the plaintiff be compelled to set forth the terms and conditions of the ticket he held. The demurrer was argued yesterday. Judge Hanford overruled it, and Colonel Haines, at the head of the railroad company, excepted to the ruling. The railroad company's defense to this suit is based on the fact that the ticket Magee held had expired before he tried to pass on it from Tacoma to Whatcom, and that he was to be treated as if he were trying to beat his way.
“He says he was forcibly put ashore in the rain at a desolate place in the woods, remote from any landing or habitation, at 11 o'clock at night.”
Transit disputes remain a flashpoint in Seattle, though today's conflicts over fare enforcement and the responsibilities of transit operators toward vulnerable passengers mirror the 1891 struggle between an individual traveler and a regional corporate giant.
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