142 Ga. 94 | Ga. | 1914
Lurleen Coleman, by her next friend, brought a suit against the Atlanta and West Point Railroad Company to recover a penalty of $1,000, under Civil Code (1910), § 2755, because of the alleged refusal of the company to comply with section 2753 in regard to selling tickets over a connecting line at the price fixed by the railroad commission for passage over the lines of such connecting roads. It was alleged that the transaction which formed the subject-matter of the suit occurred on January 29, 1910, and that
The exemptions from the operation of statutes of limitations commonly granted to infants do not rest upon any fundamental doctrine of the law, but upon the legislative will expressed in the statutes. Infants could be put upon the same footing as adults in this respect; and unless excepted, they so stand. Schauble v. Schulz, 137 Fed. 389 (69 C. C. A. 581); Vance v. Vance, 108 U. S. 514, 521 (2 Sup. Ct. 854, 27 L. ed. 808). Where a statute limits the time for commencing actions given by it, unless such statute expressly excepts minors, or they are exempted by some general law from being barred, the limitation will apply to them. 25 Cyc. 1262; Mewburn’s Heirs v. Bass, 82 Ala. 622 (2 So. 520); Norton v. Mayor etc. of New York, 38 N. Y. Supp. 90 (16 Misc. 303); Hines v. Weaver, 84 Ga. 265 (10 S. E. 741). Whether the statutory limitation for an action of the character here brought was suspended in favor of infants, so that they would not be barred, was thus not a matter of fundamental right but of legislative intent.
It has been held that an action by an individual for a penalty authorized by a statute is to be classified with actions by informers, relatively to the statute of limitations, so as to be barred in one year from the time the defendant’s liability thereto is discovered or by reasonable diligence could be discovered. Civil Code (1910), S 4370; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Nunnally, 86 Ga. 503 (12 S. E. 578).
Section 4374 of the Civil Code of 1910, which was also contained in former codes, reads as follows: • “Infants, idiots, or insane persons, or persons imprisoned, who are such when the cause of action accrues, shall be entitled to the same time, after the disability is removed, to bring an action, as is prescribed in this code for other persons.” It is contended that this language is broad enough to include actions by informers, and that, the last code having been adopted with both sections in it, the statute as to actions by informers does not run against an infant during its minority. If the language of the code is clear and unambiguous, and works this re-
The primary purpose of legislation imposing penalties and authorizing suits by informers is in general, not compensation, but correction or pecuniary forfeiture for doing the prohibited act. The code expressly calls the suit here authorized one for a penalty. Did the legislature ever contemplate that a penal or quasi-penal action against a common carrier was authorized to be brought by an infant—perhaps of tender years,—but that the right to so proceed should be preserved and the penalty or forfeiture could be inflicted many years afterward, when the child should have reached its majority? In regard to the particular action here involved, the number of persons authorized to sue is limited; but in many actions permitted to be brought by informers, there is no restriction upon the class of possible plaintiffs. So that, if the argument of counsel for the defendant in error were sound, in most cases of suits permitted to be brought by informers the person doing the prohibited act would remain liable to suffer the penalty until at least one year after all the minors then living in the State should become of age. That there were grown persons who could proceed, or that many minors might arrive at age, would make no difference. The action would remain open to the last possible informer after arriving at his majority. As insane persons and persons imprisoned are also included in the exception contained in section 4374 of the code, it would seem, under such a construction, that the liability to actions by informers generally would not be barred until all the lunatics had died or recovered, and all the prisoners—including those sentenced for life—had been discharged or pardoned, or had died. Did the lawmakers intend the exception to be one which would produce such arbitrary and absurd results?
The exception declared by the section quoted is in favor of infants, idiots, insane persons, or persons imprisoned, “who are such when the cause of action accrues,” and the same time is allowed to bring the action, after the removal of the disability, as that allowed to persons sui juris. This contemplates the preservation of the
In the case before us the action was barred by the statute of limitations, and it was error to overrule that ground of the demurrer. This being so, it would be useless to discuss other grounds.
Judgment reversed.