Yellow Cab Co. of Atlanta v. Carmichael

• Decision Date: 15 January 1925
• Docket Number: 16004.
• Citation: 126 S.E. 269,33 Ga.App. 364
• Parties: YELLOW CAB CO. OF ATLANTA v. CARMICHAEL.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

126 S.E. 269

33 Ga.App. 364

YELLOW CAB CO. OF ATLANTA v. CARMICHAEL.

No. 16004.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, First Division

January 15, 1925

Syllabus by the Court.

The petition set out a cause of action, and the demurrer interposed was properly overruled.

Additional Syllabus by Editorial Staff.

Common carrier of passengers for hire is bound to use extraordinary care and diligence to protect its passengers in transit from violence or injury by third persons, and when carrier knows of threatened injury to passenger it must take proper precautions to prevent such injury.

Carrier is liable in damages for injuries to passenger caused by willful and wanton acts of its employees, even though purpose of employees was not to serve their employer by such acts.

Error from City Court of Atlanta; H. M. Reid, Judge.

Action by S.D. Carmichael against the Yellow Cab Company of Atlanta. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Affirmed.

This is a suit to recover damages for alleged personal injuries. A demurrer to the petition was overruled, and the defendant excepted. The petition alleges:

"(1) That Yellow Cab Company of Atlanta is a corporation doing business in city of Atlanta, said state and county; that such company owns, operates, and runs for hire certain automobile cabs with drivers for the convenience of passengers arriving Atlanta from distant points; that the Cab Company is a common carrier of passengers and has an office and agent in the county of Fulton upon whom process may be served.

"(2) That plaintiff arrived at the Terminal Station in Atlanta Ga., on or about July 17, 1922, in company with three other men, for the purpose of accepting work for Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company as machinists, at its shops out near Atlanta Water Works; that he was in charge of one Rogers his employment was to be that of machinist at said shops.

"(3) That on said date there was a strike, or lockout, among the regular mechanics at said railroad shops; that said Rogers, upon arrival in Atlanta, and before engaging transportation from the depot to the shops, a distance of six miles, talked to, explained, and gave explicit instructions and directions to an agent and cab driver of the Yellow Cab Company, at the Terminal Station, Atlanta, which directions and instructions said driver, whose name is unknown to petitioner, said he understood and agreed upon, and thereupon was employed and engaged to make the trip; that it was the purpose of Rogers and those in charge to drive out to said shops, and to begin work as machinists for said railroad, and when reaching the described point for the driver of the Cab Company to turn in (which was detailed in the contract of employment) from the highways onto the property of the railroad company, there being no strikers at said point, which, at that time, was protected both by an injunction from the United States District Court and armed guards, and that said Rogers did not want to drive past said entrance, because there were banks [bands?] of strikers further up the road who would do violence to them if said Rogers and the men with them were brought into contact with said strikers.

"(4) That all of these facts were explained to said driver, and he was then asked if he could carry Rogers and his men, including petitioner, safely to the entrance heretofore mentioned; that said driver, for and on account of the Cab Company, there being no other agent of the Cab Company present, stated and agreed to transport said men from the depot safely to the shops, and agreed to turn in at the entrance designated and agreed upon.

"(5) Thereupon the price for carriage was asked, and the driver informed said Rogers that the register would mark the amount of fare at the end of the trip; that Rogers and petitioner, in company with the other men, boarded the cab and were transported towards the shops.

"(6) That just before reaching the entrance agreed upon, said Rogers spoke to the driver and informed him where to turn off the highway; that when the entrance was reached the driver was told to 'turn in' at said point, but he refused to so turn the cab off the highway, and kept same going up the road at a fast rate of speed; that, in so traveling, the cab approached and reached the second, or main entrance of the shops, and said driver was again told to turn into the shop property and off the main highway; that said driver refused and failed to do as directed, and kept the machine, which was a closed cab, going up the road, past the shops in the direction of the high bridge, 250 yards beyond the second entrance, where the cab was slowed down and boarded by four or five strikers, or their sympathizers; the cab then stopped, and the occupants, or passengers, ordered to disembark from the cab to the ground.

"(7) That immediately the passengers alighted from the cab, the strikers, by mob violence, threatened the lives of petitioner and those that had ridden out to the shops in the Yellow Cab that petitioner was forced to enter an automobile awaiting alongside; that just after he, with the other occupants of the cab, entered the waiting automobile, and were hastily driven two miles up the road; that the car was then stopped and petitioner ordered out of the car; that when he got upon the ground, one of the mob struck him a severe blow over the face with a stick that broke the bridge of his nose and knocked him to the ground in an unconscious condition; that thereafter he does not know what was done with him until the next morning he came to...