Atlanta Terminal Co. v. American Baggage & Transfer Co.

Citation54 S.E. 711,125 Ga. 677
PartiesATLANTA TERMINAL CO. et al. v. AMERICAN BAGGAGE & TRANSFER CO.
Decision Date24 May 1906
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia

Syllabus by the Court.

A railroad company as a common carrier is a public institution only in a qualified sense.

The duty of transportation by a common carrier of a parcel as baggage is incidental to and grows out of the contract for the transportation of one as a passenger, and does not arise until the person tendering such parcel for carriage has procured the right of transportation as a passenger. (Per Atkinson, J.)

Until such right has been procured, a common carrier is under no duty, public or private, to receive a parcel from any one to be transported as baggage. (Per Atkinson, J.)

A corporation, acting for a common carrier in the matters of providing a baggage room and of receiving and checking baggage for all the patrons of the common carrier, has a right to conduct in its baggage room an independent private enterprise, by which it receives and keeps on storage parcels of prospective passengers until they are called for by the passenger after he has obtained his ticket or other evidence of the right of transportation, and then, upon exhibition of the same, to check the parcel as baggage to be forwarded to the point designated by the ticket. (Per Atkinson, J.)

The operations under the private enterprise thus conducted however, must be subordinate to the service which must be rendered to persons who tender parcels to be checked as baggage, duly accompanied by tickets or other evidence of the right of transportation.

If such corporation contracts with a second corporation to allow it the exclusive right to carry on such private enterprise in its said baggage room, but complies with its duty to a third corporation as a member of the public generally, by immediately receiving and checking such parcels as may be tendered by it, accompanied by a ticket or other evidence of the right of transportation, and giving such third corporation, as to such parcels as are attended with tickets the preference over the parcels tendered by the second corporation to go upon storage, the first corporation does not violate any duty to the third, and the third corporation would have no right to challenge the legality of the contract between the first and second corporations, or to enjoin the operations thereunder.

The trial court did not commit error in any of its rulings complained of in the cross-bill of exceptions.

The court did not commit error in granting the temporary injunction complained of in the main bill of exceptions.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; J. T. Pendleton, Judge.

Action by the American Baggage & Transfer Company against the American Terminal Company and others. From the judgment, both parties bring error. Judgment on main bill of exceptions reversed, and on cross-bill affirmed.

Where a corporation, acting for a common carrier in the matters of providing a baggage room and of receiving and checking baggage for the carrier's patrons, conducts an independent private enterprise by which it receives and keeps on storage parcels of respective passengers until they are called for by the passenger after he has obtained his ticket the operations of such private enterprise must be subordinate to the service which must be rendered to persons who tender parcels to be checked as baggage, duly accompanied by tickets or other evidence of the right of transportation.

Greatly condensed, the case presented to the court below was as follows: The Southern Railway Company, the Atlanta & West Point Railroad Company, and the Central of Georgia Railway Company are each engaged in running and operating commercial railroads for the purpose, among others, of carrying passengers. They all enter and depart from the same passenger depot in the city of Atlanta. Through that depot the travel and consequent handling of baggage is very great. None of the roads have made provision in the city of Atlanta for ingress and egress by passengers with their baggage to and from its trains, except through the depot above mentioned. That depot is owned, controlled, and operated by the Atlanta Terminal Company. All of the railroads have contracts with that company, by which it undertakes safely and with all reasonable convenience to accommodate their trains on suitable railroad tracks in a suitable depot, and in like manner to accommodate the traveling public as to passengers and baggage in reaching and departing from their trains through such depot. They all have rules, applicable in the city of Atlanta, which require persons to have tickets before admission to the trains, and before receiving parcels as baggage, or parcels to be checked as baggage. The Atlanta Terminal Company is a separate and distinct corporation chartered by the Secretary of State, under the law which governs the grant of charters to railroad companies. In the exercise of its charter powers, it acquired the site for the depot, and constructed thereon a depot building and grounds, well equipped with railroad tracks for the handling of trains, and with other conveniences for the public in reaching and departing from the several trains, and with like conveniences for the handling of baggage for passengers. In the depot building there are baggage rooms sufficient to accommodate all the public, to which outgoing baggage is carried to be checked and delivered onto trains, and from which incoming baggage is received by passengers or their agents. The means of the delivery of baggage from the baggage rooms to the trains, and from the trains to the baggage rooms, is by elevator and other modes provided by the Terminal Company. There are no means by which a passenger can deliver and receive his baggage except through the baggage rooms. These rooms are not immediately on any street, but may be reached by a driveway made especially for the use and convenience of vehicles in delivering and receiving baggage for passengers. With reference to the handling of baggage under the particular conditions above outlined, the Atlanta Terminal Company, being the corporation which, in place of the railroads, was undertaking to serve the public in the manner already indicated, entered into a contract with the Atlanta Baggage & Cab Company, wherein it was provided, among other things, that the company last named should have "exclusive control of checking baggage from and to all points in the city of Atlanta from and into the baggage rooms" of the said Atlanta Terminal Company. By virtue of this clause in the contract it was the intention of the Terminal Company that the Cab Company should have the privilege, when employed by a prospective passenger to transfer a trunk to the depot, to send its agent to the residence or hotel of said prospective passenger, and upon the trunk at such hotel or residence place the private "claim check," giving to the owner a duplicate of the same, the trunk then to be hauled to the depot and placed within the baggage rooms. Later, when the passenger would come to the baggage rooms and present his railroad ticket or other evidence of the right to transportation over any of the lines of railroad entering the depot, with his said claim check, his trunk would be immediately identified and the claim check taken up, and, in lieu thereof, a railroad check given for the trunk as baggage to be forwarded to the point of destination on the route designated by his ticket. Operations such as above described were actually conducted under said contract. The arrangement is greatly to the convenience of the traveler, and enables him to send his baggage in advance to the depot, and have it stored where he can readily obtain it within the depot building upon his arrival with ticket for departure on the train. That is the service afforded the public where the Cab Company is patronized. But if a prospective passenger should send his trunk by a private conveyance, or by the agency of some person or firm than the Cab Company, the trunk would not be received on storage at all, unless it was accompanied by the railroad ticket or other evidence of the right of transportation of the prospective passenger. In such case the trunk would not be admitted into the building, and the passenger, after procuring his ticket, would, by himself or agent, be required to produce the baggage from outside the building, directly into the baggage room, whereupon it would be received as baggage and kept on storage until the departure of the first train over the route indicated by the ticket, and then forwarded to the point of destination.

The American Baggage & Transfer Company is, in the city of Atlanta, a rival company to the Atlanta Baggage & Cab Company, competing with it in the business of hauling baggage for passengers and prospective passengers to and from the said depot, and is not allowed the "claim check" privilege above described, but is required, before baggage will be received from it into the baggage rooms to present a railroad ticket or other evidence of the right of transportation over one of the lines of railroad entering the depot. Feeling directly aggrieved, the company last named filed its suit against the Atlanta Terminal Company and the Atlanta Baggage & Cab Company, and upon the case as presented claimed that the exclusive contract referred to between the defendants, and the operation thereunder as above described were unlawful, as being unjust discrimination against the public generally and the plaintiff in particular in a matter relating to a public service, and that such discrimination had resulted and would continue to result in injury and damage to the plaintiff, and that the same was forbidden by article 4, § 2, par. 4, of the Constitution of this state,...

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  • Atlanta Terminal Co v. Am. Baggage & Transfer Co
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Georgia
    • May 24, 1906
    ...54 S.E. 711125 Ga. 677ATLANTA TERMINAL CO. et al.v.AMERICAN BAGGAGE & TRANSFER CO.Supreme Court of Georgia.May 24, 1906. 1. Carriers—Public Character. A railroad company as a common carrier is a public institution only in a qualified sense. 2. Same — Carriage of Passengers —Baggage. The dut......

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