Bass v. The Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company

Bass (plaintiff) was a male passenger on a three-car train owned by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company (the railway) (defendant). The middle car was well appointed but full. The rear car (the ladies’ car) was reserved for unaccompanied women and men traveling with women. The front car was a smoking car that Bass, a first-class passenger, found offensive because it was crudely furnished. Bass had traveled the same route before and been allowed to sit in the ladies’ car if there were no seats available in the middle car. There was evidence that other men had similarly been allowed to sit in the ladies’ car if the other first-class car was full. After a stop, Bass found the door to the ladies’ car locked and stood on the car’s platform until the train started to pull away. The brakeman unlocked the door, and Bass entered the car and started down the aisle. However, the brakeman and another person then forced Bass out of the car and onto its platform as the train was crossing a river via an open bridge. Bass suffered cuts and bruises on his arm and hand, and his ring and cane were broken in the scuffle. There was conflicting testimony as to whether the brakeman advised Bass not to enter the car. The railway argued that if Bass tried to enter the ladies’ car after being refused admittance, the brakeman had the right to use force sufficient to prevent Bass’s entry, but the judge did not so instruct the jury. Instead, the judge instructed the jury that the railway’s regulation barring unaccompanied men from the ladies’ car was reasonable to protect female passengers traveling alone from annoyance and insult, but if the jury found that the railway had not enforced the regulation consistently on previous occasions, the railway did not have the right to insist that Bass be excluded from the car, regardless of whether Bass was verbally denied admittance. The jury returned a verdict for Bass, and the railway appealed.