The Ga. Pac. Ry. Co. v. Mapp

• Decision Date: 31 March 1888
• Citation: 80 Ga. 631
• Parties: The Georgia Pacific Railway Company. vs. Mapp.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

80 Ga. 631

The Georgia Pacific Railway Company. vs. Mapp.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

MARCH TERM, 1888.

Railroads. Damages. Negligence. Before Judge Marshall J. Clarke. Fulton superior court., October term, 1887.

David Mapp brought his action for damages for personal injuries against the Georgia Pacific Railway Company, alleging, in brief, that as an employe of the Atlanta GasLight Company, he was engaged in unloading coal from cars on a private side-track of the gas company at its yard, and that a train of cars propelled by an engine of the defendant, running at an unusual and unlawful speed, and without ringing the bell or other precautionary signals, carelessly ran into the cars attached to the one he was so unloading, and the one which he was at that time engaged in pushing, seriously injuring him.

The evidence introduced on the trial was directly con-flicting on every material point in the case. The plaintiff, by his own testimony and that of several other witnesses (who were either engaged at work with him at the time, or were in the neighborhood and saw the injury occur), showed that he was at work on a short side-track in very close proximity to the coal-house of the gas company; that there were eight cars on the track and they had been there the whole day, it being about 3 o\'clock in the afternoon when the collision occurred; that seven cars had been unloaded, but the other not being in a good position for unloading, it was desirable to move it, and in order to do so it was necessary to uncouple it from the next car, and to do this it was necessary to push the next car closer to it; that this would have moved the car towards the center of the city and towards Foundry street, the track being located between Foundry and Thurmond streets, the latter being next beyond Foundry from the heart of the city; that none of the cars had been moved during the day, and this was the first effort to do so; that the plaintiff had got down from the car and had told others, who were immediately under his employment, to get down and help him, and then he put his crowbar under the wheel of the empty car with a view to pinching it towards the loaded one, but before he could move it at all the injury occurred; that it was caused by a collision between a train of cars, run by defendant\'s engine on the track next adjoining, of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and the farther end of the train of cars the plaintiff had been unloading; that the defendant\'s train was being pushed (not pulled) by its engine behind, and was moving towards the center of the city at a speed of six to eight miles an hour; that it had just crossed Thurmond moving towards Foundry street, they being about 200 yards apart, and the end of the switch of the private side-track nearest Thurmond street being about twenty or thirty feet therefrom; that the speed of the train was not checked and no bell was rung or whistle blown, and no signal of any kind given, except (one witness stated) that there was a man about midway on the top of the end car who halloed and waved his hand; and that the force of the collision was so great as to knock the trucks of three or four cars across the track, breaking down two or three of the posts of the coalshed, and driving the crowbar with which plaintiff was working into his thigh to and along the bone, making a terrible wound and otherwise bruising and injuring him.

There was some conflict between the testimony of the plaintiff's witnesses as to the use which had been made during the day of the track on which defendant's train was running, some stating that there had been no train that day on that particular track, others that trains had passed there; but as to the other facts stated, his witnesses substantially agreed.

The defendant introduced its then yardmaster, the engineer, fireman and conductor of its train, its switchman, the assistant yardmaster of the Western and Atlantic Railroad and others. It showed that its train started from its yard, a very short distance beyond Thurmond street, on a heavy up-grade, towards the gas works; that when the collision occurred, it had run only a few yards and had not and could not have attained a speed of more than three miles an hour; that its switchman had been sent ahead to properly place switches,...