Bryant v. Atl. Coast Line R. Co

• Decision Date: 20 March 1917
• Docket Number: (No. 7924.)
• Citation: 91 S.E. 1047,19 Ga.App. 536
• Parties: BRYANT v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

91 S.E. 1047

(19 Ga.App. 536)

BRYANT

v.ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.

(No. 7924.)

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

March 20, 1917.

Rehearing Denied April 4, 1917.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from City Court of Blakely; R. H. Sheffield, Judge.

Action by T. J. Bryant against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company. Judgment for defendant on sustaining a demurrer to the complaint and dismissing the suit, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed.

Glessner & Collins, of Blakely, for plaintiff in error.

Pope & Bennet, of Albany, for defendant in error.

LUKE, J. The suit was instituted in the city court of Blakely, in the county of Early. The defendant filed a demurrer, which the trial judge sustained, dismissing the suit, and the plaintiff excepted.

The petition shows the following facts: The defendant company operates a line of railroad from Montgomery, Ala., to Jacksonville, Fla., passing through the town of Jakin, in Early county, Ga., at which point the company maintains a station in the charge of a local agent, whose office is open during the day and closed at night. One of the regular passenger trains operated by the company over this line of road, and scheduled to arrive at Jakin at 11:30 o'clock at night, carries a sleeping car, wherein, upon paying additional fare, passengers are afforded additional comforts. The plaintiff, who was 61 years old, feeble and suffering from hay fever, hoped to improve his health by a trip to Homestead, Fla., provided he could obtain the additional comforts afforded by the sleeping car from Jakin to Jacksonville in taking the contemplated journey, and desired like accomodations for his sister, 64 years of age, who was to accompany him as nurse. He applied to the local agent at Jakin for such transportation and accommodations, making known to the agent that he would not take the trip unless he could obtain the additional comforts afforded by the sleeping car. The agent replied that, as the train in question passed Jakin at night while his office was closed, he could not sell the desired tickets, but that if the plaintiff would make application in the forenoon, he (the local agent) would telegraph the company's agent at Montgomery, and have two berths in the sleeping car reserved, and that the plaintiff could then pay the regular fare and the sleeping car fare to the conductor on board the train. On the following morning the plaintiff made such an application, and the local agent telegraphed the Montgomery agent, who replied that the two berths desired by the plaintiff had been reserved and would be held for him. Relying on these assurances, the plaintiff and his sister boarded the train, which stopped...