COMMON CARRIERS OP PAS SENGERS. Such as carry persons for hire, and are bound to carry all who offer. 19 Wend. N. Y. 239; 10 N. H. 486; 15 III. 472 ; 2 Swum. C. C. 221 ; 3 Brod. & B. 54 ; 9 Price, Exch. 408.
2. They may excuse themselves when there is an unexpected press of travel and all their means are exhausted. But see Red field, Railw. 344, 0 155, and notes, and cases oited ; Story, Bailm. 0 591; 10 N. H. 486.
Passenger-carriers are not held responsible as insurers of the safety of their passengers, as common carriers of goods are. But they are bound to the very highest degree of care and watchfulness in regard to all their ap pliances for the conduct of their business : so that, as far as human foresight can secure the safety of passengers, there is an unques tionable right to demand it of all who enter upon the business of passenger-carriers. 2 Esp. 533 ; 17 Ill. 496.
The carrier is not excused because the pas senger does not pay fare. 14 How. 483. But see 13 Ala. 234, in regard to slaves carried without hire. One who carries slaiies as a com mon carrier is only responsible as a carrier of passengers. 2 Pet. 150 ; 4 M'Cord, So. C. 223; Angell, Carr. 00 122, 522.
3. Passenger-carriers are responsible as common carriers for the baggage of their passengers. 13 Wend. N. Y. 626.
Where the servants of common carriers of passengers—as the drivers of stage-coaches, etc., the captains of steamboats, and the con ductors of railway-trains—are allowed to carry parcels, the carriers are responsible for their safe delivery, although such servants are not required to account for what they re ceive by way of compensation. 2 Wend. N.
Y. 327 ; 6 id. 351; 23 Vt. 186, 203; 2 Stor.
C. C. 16; 2 Kent, Comm. 609.
The passenger must be ready and willing to pay such fare as is required by the esta blished regulations of the carriers in con formity with law. But an actual tender of fare or passage-money does not seem requi site in order to maintain an action for an ab solute refusal to carry, and much less is it necessary in an action for any injury sus tained. 6 C. B. 775 ; Story, Bailm. 4 591; 1 East, 203 ; 2 Kent, Comm. 598, 599, and note. The rule of law is the same in regard to pay ing fare in advance that it is as to freight, except that, the usage in the former case being to take pay in advance, a passenger is expected to have procured his ticket before he had taken passage ; and the law will imply payment according to such usages. 3 Penn.
St. 451.
4. In regard to the particulars of the duty of carriers of passengers as to their entire equipment both of machinery and servants, the decisions are very numerous ; but they all concur in the result that if there was any thing more which could have been done by the car rier to insure the safety of his passengers, and injury occurs in consequence of the omis sion, be is liable. The consequence of such a rule naturally is, that, after any injury occurs, it is more commonly discovered that it was in some degree owing to some possible omis sion or neglect on the part of the carrier or his servants, and that he is therefore held re sponsible for the damage sustained ; but where the defect was one which no degree of watchfulness in the carrier will enable him to discover, he is clearly not liable. Red field, Railw. 0 149, notes; Angell, Carr. 0 534 ; Story, Bailm. 00 592-596; 2 Barnew. & Ad. 169 ; 3 Bingh. 319 ; .11 Gratt. Va. 697; 9 Mete. Mass. 1; 1 McLean, C. C. 540; 2 id. 157 ; 4 Gill, Md. 406.
The degree of speed allowable upon a rail< way depends upon the condition of the road. 5 Q. B. 747.
5. lint passenger-carriers are not responsi ble where the injury resulted in any degree from the negligence of the passenger. 11 East, 60; 22 Vt. 213 ; Angell, Carr. 556 et seq., and cases cited ; Redfield, Railw. 330, 0 150, and oases cited in notes.
Where there is intentional wrong on the part of the defendant, the plaintiff may reco ver, notwithstanding negligence on his part. 5 Hill, N. Y. 282. So, also, where the plain tiff's negligence contributed but remotely to the injury, and the defendant's culpable want of care was its immediate cause, a recovery may still be had. 10 Mees. & W. Exch. 564; 5 Carr. & P. 190. So, also, if the defendant is guilty of such a degree of negligence that the plaintiff could not have escaped its con sequences, he may recover, notwithstanding there was want of prudence on his part. 3 Mees. & W. Exch. 244; 18 Ga. 679, 686; 1 Dutch. N. J. 556; Redfield, Railw. 0 150, and cases cited in notes. Passengers leaping from cars or other vehicles, either by land or water, from any just sense of peril, may still recover. 9 La. Ann. 441; 15 Ill. 468 ; 17 id. 406; 23 Penn. St. 147, 150 ; 13 Pet. 181 ; Redfield, Railw. 0 151, and cases cited.