## Facts

- Mrs. Gray, a fare-paying passenger, bought a first-class round-trip ticket from Lexington, Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.
- On the return trip at the Cincinnati depot, Mrs. Gray (carrying a sick child and accompanied by her husband) attempted to enter a car treated as a “ladies’ car” or a car with women and men.
- A brakeman refused to admit her to that car and directed her to the only other available car, which contained only men, some of whom were smoking.
- When asked why she could not ride in the car she sought, the brakeman stated she was refused because of her race.
- Mrs. Gray declined to travel in the smoking car and returned to Lexington by other means.
- Mrs. Gray sued the railroad for damages based on the denial of appropriate first-class accommodations.
- The case was tried to a jury in federal circuit court; the jury returned a verdict for Mrs. Gray for $1,000 after instructions that damages should “make her whole,” including loss of time and inconvenience.

## Issues

1. Whether a railroad, as a common carrier, may exclude a first-class passenger from a ladies’ car and require her to ride in a men-only smoking car when the exclusion is explicitly based on race.
2. If the exclusion is unlawful, whether compensatory damages may include loss of time, inconvenience, and the circumstances attending the refusal of carriage.

## Decision

- The court held the railroad liable as a common carrier for refusing appropriate accommodations to a properly ticketed passenger on a racially discriminatory basis.
- The court approved instructing the jury to award damages that would fully compensate Mrs. Gray, including loss of time and inconvenience and the circumstances of the refusal.
- The $1,000 verdict for the plaintiff was allowed to stand.

## Legal Principles

- A railroad transporting passengers is a common carrier and must carry members of the public who comply with the carrier’s reasonable rules and regulations.
- A carrier may adopt reasonable regulations and passenger classifications, including assigning passengers to different cars, but such rules must be reasonable and applied without unjust discrimination.
- A passenger holding a valid first-class ticket is entitled to first-class accommodations consistent with that ticket and cannot be relegated to inferior or unsuitable accommodations for an arbitrary reason such as race.
- In an action for wrongful refusal of appropriate carriage, compensatory damages may include loss of time, inconvenience, and consideration of the surrounding circumstances of the exclusion.

## Conclusion

The court treated the railroad’s race-based exclusion of a first-class passenger from the ladies’ car as an unlawful breach of common-carrier duty and permitted a compensatory damages award based on the passenger’s time loss, inconvenience, and the circumstances of the discriminatory refusal.


Gray v. Cincinnati S. R.R. Co., 11 F. 683 (C.C.S.D. Ohio 1882)