Landrum v. Western & A.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 15 November 1916
• Docket Number: 63.
• Parties: LANDRUM v. WESTERN & A. R. CO.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

90 S.E. 710

146 Ga. 88

LANDRUM v. WESTERN & A. R. CO.

No. 63.

Supreme Court of Georgia

November 15, 1916

Syllabus by the Court.

Where the evidence and the pleadings show that the defendant is a railroad company engaged in interstate commerce, and that the person for whose death suit is brought was employed by the defendant in such commerce, the Federal Liability Act of 1908 (Act Cong. April 22, 1908, c. 149, 35 Stat. 65 [U. S. Comp. St. 1913, §§ 8657-8665]) governs, to the exclusion of the state statute. Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Kemp, 140 Ga. 661, 79 S.E. 558; North Carolina R. Co. v. Zachary, 232 U.S. 248, 34 S.Ct. 305, 58 L.Ed. 591, Ann.Cas. 1914C, 159.

Under the Federal Liability Act of 1908, no negligence against a railroad company is presumed from the fact of the killing.

Where the evidence discloses circumstances which authorize an inference that the employé of the railroad company engaged in interstate commerce was killed in an undisclosed manner by the train of such company, but wholly fails to show negligence on the part of the company, a motion for a nonsuit is properly sustained.

Error from Superior Court, Cobb County; H. L. Patterson, Judge.

Action by N.C. Landrum, administratrix, against the Western & Atlantic Railroad Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Smith, Hammond & Smith, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Tye, Peeples & Jordan, of Atlanta, and E. H. Clay and D. W. Blair, both of Marietta, for defendant in error.

GILBERT, J.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur.