Atlanta Terminal Co v. Ga. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, (No. 5446.)

• Decision Date: 03 March 1927
• Docket Number: (No. 5446.)
• Citation: 163 Ga. 897,137 S.E. 556
• Parties: ATLANTA TERMINAL CO. v. GEORGIA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

163 Ga. 897

137 S.E. 556

ATLANTA TERMINAL CO.

v.GEORGIA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION et al.

(No. 5446.)

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 3, 1927.

(Syllabus by Editorial Staff.)

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; John D. Humphries, Judge.

Action by the Atlanta Terminal Company against the Georgia Public Service Commission and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

The Atlanta Terminal Company is chartered, and organized as a railroad corporation. It does not operate a railroad, and its sole business is the operation of a passenger depot and terminal station in the city of Atlanta for the convenience of other named railroad companies, which use said terminal in connection with their general business as common carriers in the transportation of passengers. Operating under a contract, it represents those companies in receiving, checking, and delivering baggage passing in and out of the terminal station over the lines of said railroads. The Georgia Public Service Commission, after having afforded the Atlanta Terminal Company a hearing, adopted the following order:

"That, effective January 1, 1926, the Atlanta Terminal Company shall receive in its baggageroom baggage, properly identified by a claim check of such persons, firms, or corporations as may comply with the terms of this order, a duplicate, the original of which has been delivered to the owner or agent of the owner of such baggage, and shall issue to the owner representing the claim check, together with a railroad ticket a train check for such baggage to the destination shown on the ticket. Any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of handling and hauling baggage from hotels, residences, and places of business in Atlanta, Ga., to the passenger station of the Atlanta Terminal Company, as the agent of prospective passengers, shall be permitted to issue duplicate claim checks for baggage, and to have their claim checks recognized and exchanged for train checks by the Atlanta Terminal Company when presented by a passenger, together with a railroad ticket, by filing with the Atlanta Terminal Company a solvent bond executed by an acceptable surety company in favor of the Atlanta Terminal Company in the sum of $10,000, conditioned to indemnify the Atlanta Terminal Company for all loss or damage occasioned by loss, accident, negligence, or mistake in the handling of baggage by said person, firm, or corporation."

The Atlanta Terminal Company instituted an action against the Georgia Public Service Commission and its members. The petition alleged the facts just stated, and prayed to enjoin enforcement of the order. The defendants filed an answer. Evidence without substantial conflict, tending to sustain the allegations of fact contained in the petition, was introduced at an interlocutory hearing, and a judgment refusing a temporary injunction was rendered. The exception is to this judgment.

Dorsey, Howell & Heyman, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

W. E. Watkins, of Jackson, and S. D. Hewlett, of Atlanta, for defendants in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

ATKINSON, J. [1] 1. Properly construed, the order in question of the state Public Service Commission requires the Atlanta Terminal Company to receive in its baggage-room properly identified by a duplicate, claim check of such persons,...