Walker v. Ga. Ry. & Electric Co

• Decision Date: 07 March 1905
• Citation: 122 Ga. 368,50 S.E. 121
• Parties: WALKER. v. GEORGIA RY. & ELECTRIC CO.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

122 Ga. 368

50 S.E. 121

WALKER.

v.GEORGIA RY. & ELECTRIC CO.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 7, 1905.

CARRIERS—INJURY TO PASSENGER.

If the plaintiff proved his case as laid, he disproved it on cross-examination, and showed that, without any emergency or necessity justifying the same, he voluntarily stepped from a rapidly moving car at night; and there was no error in granting a nonsuit.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 9, Cent. Dig. Carriers, §§ 1391-1393, 1402.]

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from City Court of Atlanta; A. E. Calhoun, Judge.

Action by Marshall Walker against the Georgia Railway & Electric Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Marshall Walker sued the Georgia Railway & Electric Company for personal injuries. The negligence alleged was that the company had under the car an air brake which made a sound and produced a vibration when the car was at rest similar to that made when the car was in motion; that the conductor called the station; that the plaintiff believed from the announcement that it was safe to alight, and that the car had stopped, and supposed that the noise and vibration were caused by the air brake; that he proceeded to step from the car, which was in fact in motion, and received certain physical injuries. After testifying in chief to the facts stated in the petition, the plaintiff testified that he saw the gates at Ft. McPherson. "Didn't know how fast the car was running when he stepped off, but it was running pretty fast. It hadn't slowed up very much. It was running very nearly as fast as it had been all the way along there. It was running the way it had been going, down to the fort. It slowed up a little, but not much. Not much, from the way I fell. I saw the lights over there inside the barracks." The court granted a nonsuit, and the plaintiff excepted.

J. F. Golightly, for plaintiff in error.

Rosser & Brandon, W. T. Colquitt, and B. J.Conyers, for defendant in error.

LAMAR, J. (after stating the foregoing facts). The announcement of a station is not an invitation to step from a rapidly moving car. By the exercise of ordinary care the plaintiff could have avoided the consequences of what he claims to have been negligence on the part of the defendant. With full knowledge that the car was running at practically the same speed at which it had approached the station, and had barely begun to slow up, the plaintiff stepped therefrom without being forced to do so by the act of the...