119 Ga. 738 | Ga. | 1904
C. I. Branan complained in his petition that the “Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis R. R. Co., lessees and operators of the Western & Atlantic R. R. Co.,” had injured and dam
Upon a demand by the plaintiff for compliance with the notice, .the defendant produced the claim and the exhibits attached thereto, as described in the first paragraph of the notice. The defendant answered that the lease called for was a public law of which the court would take cognizance, and that the other portions of the notice, calling for various documents, were too indefinite and uncertain, and the bulk of the documents so called for was such that the defendant could not reasonably be expected to produce the same, especially as it was obvious that many, if not. all,' of them were wholly irrelevant and immaterial. The court held that the answer of the defendant as to the production of the lease was insufficient; whereupon counsel for the defendant stated that they had acted in perfect good faith in having the defendant answer that the lease was a public law, so believing themselves ; but since the court ruled otherwise, they asked for a brief time in which to produce the lease, explaining that the lease was executed in duplicate; that the defendant’s duplicate was at Nashville, Tenn., the home of the defendant, which was a nonresident corporation, while the State’s duplicate was in the capitol in the City of Atlanta, in which city the case was being tried; and stated that, if given time, they would send to Nashville and get the defendant’s duplicate or produce a certified copy of the State’s duplicate, as the court should direct. The court thereupon announced that if counsel would produce a certified copy of the State’s duplicaté, this would be a sufficient compliance with the notice. The next morning, before the conclusion of the evidence, the defendant did produce a certified copy of the State’s duplicate and tendered the same to counsel for the plaintiff, who declined to accept it, insisting it was not what the plaintiff called for, not being the original. Defendant’s counsel then offered it in evi
The defendant company objected to the introduction of this documentary evidence, and presented to the court a motion to •direct a verdict in its favor, on the ground that “ the evidence disclosed that no service had been made upon defendant.” The court thereupon excluded the documentary evidence offered by the plaintiff, and directed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant company. To the action of the court in thus disposing of the case the plaintiff duly excepted. It appearing from the evidence that the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Lorfis Railway Company had leased the W. & A. Railroad from this State under the lease act of 1889, it must be true, as matter of law, that under the terms of that act the lessee at once became a body politic and corporate under the laws of Georgia, under the name and style Of the “Western & Atlantic Railroad Company,” and subject to suit in that name only. Edwards’ case, 91 Ga. 24. That act
Judgment affirmed.