Caldwell v. Richmond & D.R. Co.
| Decision Date | 27 April 1892 |
| Citation | 15 S.E. 678,89 Ga. 550 |
| Parties | CALDWELL v. RICHMOND & D. R. Co. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. Railroad companies of this state, having charters which authorize them to take private property for public purposes are common carriers in conducting their freight and passenger business, and so are their lessees, when engaged in such business in the use and exercise of the franchises of the companies, respectively. The fact that they are such carriers may be judicially noticed, without being expressly pleaded.
2. A railroad which, as a common carrier, receives a passenger and collects her fare to a particular station, with knowledge on the part of the conductor that she intends and desires to leave the train at that station, is charged by law with the duty of stopping the train at the station and affording her an opportunity to get off; and failure to perform such duty is not only a breach of contract, but a tort, and an action for the tort is maintainable.
Error from city court of Atlanta; HOWARD VAN EPPS, Judge.
Action by Mary Caldwell against the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company for damages for refusing to stop its train and allow plaintiff to leave the same at a station to which she had paid her fare. There was a judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed.
Blalock & Birney, for plaintiff in error.
Jackson & Jackson, for defendant in error.
1. The declaration fails to allege distinctly, as it should do either that defendant, as lessee, or the Georgia Pacific Railway Co., whose railroad and franchises are operated and controlled by defendant, is a common carrier of passengers but, not withstanding this omission, the declaration may be upheld. The Georgia Pacific Railway Company is a corporation created by the legislature of this state, having authority under its charter to take private property for public use and it is, by virtue of this charter, a common carrier, authorized, as such, to transport freight and passengers. Of these facts the court may take judicial cognizance, and, this being true, the declaration sufficiently alleges that this corporation is a common carrier. The defendant, as lessee, using the franchises of the lessor company, and, by virtue thereof, engaging in the business of carrying passengers, may be treated as a common carrier, and made liable as such. It would be better, however, to allege plainly all such...
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...857, 32 Am. St. Rep. 72; Fetter on Carriers of Passengers, sec. 300; Strange v. Mo. P. Ry. Co., 61 Mo. App. 586; Caldwell v. Richmond & D. R. Co., 89 Ga. 550, 15 S.E. 678. The testimony considered, the verdict is not excessive, but, on the contrary, is exceedingly reasonable. Other errors a......
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