Lindsay v. The Cent. R.R. Banking Co.

• Decision Date: 31 July 1872
• Parties: WILLIAM M. LINDSAY, by his next friend, plaintiff in error. v. THE CENTRAL RAILROAD BANKING COMPANY, defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

46 Ga. 447

WILLIAM M. LINDSAY, by his next friend, plaintiff in error. v. THE CENTRAL RAILROAD BANKING COMPANY, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, July Term, 1872.)

Railroads. Master and servant. Before Judge Cole. Bibb Superior Court. October Term, 1871.

For the facts of this case, see the decision.

Nisbets & Jackson; John B. Weems; John Rutherford, for plaintiff in error.

W. K. DeGraffenried; Lyon & Irvin; Jackson, Lawton & Basinger, for defendant.

WARNER, Chief Justice.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff against the defendant to recover damages for injuries done to the plaintiff by the defendant, in running his cars on his road and forcibly ejecting the plaintiff therefrom. It appears from the evidence in the record that in the year 1864 the defendant's passenger railroad train was backing slowly into the passenger depot at Macon, when the plaintiff, who was about ten years old, got on the platform of the second car from the rear car, when the train was some forty steps from the depot; that, in a moment or two, a negro man emerged from the car on the platform on which the plaintiff was standing, and asked him what he was doing there? Plaintiff replied, "Is that anything to you?" The negro said, "Yes, I have charge of this car, " and told plaintiff he must get off; plaintiff told him he would not, and the negro began to shove him off; plaintiff resisted, but the negro succeeded in pushing him *off, and he fell between the cars, was caught on the track and badly injured and maimed by the wheels; did not know the negro who pushed him off; never saw him before, and has never seen him since; did not know whether he was a mulatto or black; does not know that he was an employee of the company, except from the way in which he acted and what he said. The father of the plaintiff testified, that "he was frequently on the railroad, about the depot, during the time testified about; is acquainted with the habits and custom of the Central Railroad in backing from East Macon to passenger depot; that it was their custom to allow no one but employees on the train, and to keep the cars locked until ready to receive passengers, and their rules were particularly stringent in the then condition of the country; it may be that some persons did sometimes get on the train in East Macon and cross the river on the cars." This is all the evidence going to show that the negro who pushed the plaintiff off the car was the employee or servant of the company.

The defendant, as a railroad company, is liable under the law for any damage done to persons by the running of their locomotives, cars or other machinery of their company, or for damage done by any person in the employment and service of...