Georgia Southern & F. Ry. Co. v. Corry

• Decision Date: 29 July 1919
• Docket Number: 1098.
• Citation: 99 S.E. 881,149 Ga. 295
• Parties: GEORGIA SOUTHERN & F. RY. CO. v. CORRY.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

99 S.E. 881

149 Ga. 295

GEORGIA SOUTHERN & F. RY. CO. v. CORRY.

No. 1098.

Supreme Court of Georgia

July 29, 1919

Syllabus by the Court.

A railway company over whose road a passenger train, including a sleeping car, is operated, is liable for damages which are the approximate results of negligence on the part of the employés in charge of the sleeping car in failing to notify a passenger occupant thereof of the train's arrival at his destination. This is true though the company may not own the sleeping car or the train, since those having them in charge become its agents and employés as to duties due such passenger while the train is being operated over its road. Where the passenger in the sleeping car had no notice of the train's arrival at his destination, he being ignorant of this fact by reason of the darkness of the night, and the train, together with the sleeping car occupied by him, was at that place, in accordance with its regular course and schedule, but without his knowledge, switched from the line of road over which he held passage onto the line of road of another and different company, and, after being transported for some 20 miles over its road, he was required by its conductor and the conductor of the sleeping car to leave the train during the night, in freezing weather, at a small station where he was unable to secure accommodation, by reason whereof he contracted an illness which caused him much physical pain and mental anguish, held:

(a) The company over whose line he held passage and traveled to his destination was not liable in damages for his illness, for the reason that it was not the proximate result of such company's negligence in failing to notify him of arrival at his destination.

(b) There were no aggravating circumstances in failing to give notice of arrival at the destination, so as to authorize a recovery of exemplary or punitive damages.

(c) Nor were damages for loss of time and expense incurred by reason of being carried, without notice, beyond the destination recoverable, when not specially sued for, nor the amounts claimed therefor specifically set forth.

(d) The petition set forth cause for the recovery of nominal damages.

Certiorari to Court of Appeals.

Action by Reid Corry against the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Company. A judgment for plaintiff was affirmed by the Court of Appeals (22 Ga.App. 424, 96 S.E. 335), and defendant brings certiorari. Judgment of Court of Appeals affirmed.

This case came before the Court of Appeals on a bill of exceptions filed to review alleged errors committed by the judge of the city court of Tifton in passing on and overruling a general demurrer, and certain special demurrers to a petition brought by Reid Corry against the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Company, and to review certain alleged errors in the allowance of amendments to the petition. The substance of the petition, as amended to meet special demurrers, was as follows: Plaintiff purchased from the ticket agent of the Central of Georgia Railway Company in Atlanta a through ticket over the line of that company and the line of the defendant to Tifton, a station on the defendant's line and at the same time purchased a ticket for a berth in a sleeping car attached to the train on which he took passage and which was due to arrive at Tifton at 3:30 the next morning. Both tickets were taken up by the conductors in charge of the train soon after it left Atlanta. He requested the porter of the sleeping car, whose duty it was to awaken passengers in time for them to disembark at their destination, to awaken him in time for him to leave the train at Tifton. The porter, however, aroused him at Cordele, a station on the defendant's line 40 miles from Tifton. Plaintiff thereupon dressed to be ready to get off at his destination, and again requested the porter to notify him upon arrival at Tifton, and this the porter promised to do. Plaintiff was not notified by the porter, or by any one else when the train reached Tifton, and being unable, on account of the darkness of the night, to recognize the place, he did not know of the train's arrival at that station. The train, including the sleeper in which plaintiff was riding as a passenger, was at Tifton "switched over and delivered to the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company for the purpose of continuing its journey to Jacksonville, Fla., its final destination, over the rails of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company, the special Pullman porter and Pullman conductor being on and occupying said Pullman car on said final journey to Jacksonville, as employés of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and as agents of the defendant company that the conductors, to wit, the Pullman conductor and the Atlantic Coast Line Railway conductor, both in charge of said train and sleeping car, and acting in the capacity of conductor of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company, and the Pullman Palace Car Company, did command, request, and require petitioner to leave said train [at Alapaha, a station 20 miles from Tifton, on the line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway] when your petitioner was then and there insisting to said conductors that he be carried to Waycross, Ga., or some other convenient place as originally alleged, * * * whereas, said agents, servants, and employés, as aforesaid, refused to comply with the petitioner's request and petitioner was put off at said Alapaha by said conductors. Your petitioner at the time was general manager of the Wade-Corry Company, it being a general dry goods department store in said city of Tifton." Alapaha is a small station affording little accommodation. The hotel was full and closed, so that plaintiff could not secure a room upon application. The depot was closed, and be could find no place to repose, but had to remain out in the weather, in the rain and cold, on account of which he contracted la grippe, from which he suffered severely for three weeks, being practically unable to attend to his business during that time, and also suffered much mental anguish. Plaintiff was compelled to remain at Alapaha for six hours before he could take a train to return to Tifton, and had to pay full fare for his return passage.

The petition was demurred to on the grounds, among others, that it set forth no cause of action, and under the facts alleged the defendant was not liable for any damages claimed by plaintiff by reason of being put off the train by the conductors of the Pullman Palace Car Company and the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company after the train on which plaintiff was a passenger had been transferred according to its regular schedule from the railroad of the defendant to that of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway Company. These demurrers, as well as numerous special demurrers to the petition, were overruled by the trial judge. Upon review his judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, which rendered the following decision (22 Ga.App. 424, 96 S.E. 335):

"Wade, C.J. Where sleeping cars not owned by the railway company are a part of the train, and are attached to it, presumably in the interest of the railway company, the railway company is still bound by its ordinary obligations and liabilities as a common carrier of passengers to those who make use of the accommodations afforded by the sleeping cars. In all matters relating to the passenger's safety, the conductor, the porter, and other servants of such cars are the servants of the company of whose train the cars are for the time being a part. Mize v. Southern Ry. Co., 15 Ga.App. 265, 82 S.E. 925 (4), and numerous cases there cited.

"2. Where one purchased a ticket entitling him to occupy a berth in a Pullman car which constituted a part of the train in which he was a passenger over the line of the railway company, and the porter in charge of the sleeping car, upon whom rested the duty of

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