129 Ga. 652 | Ga. | 1907
Inman & Company brought suit against the Central of Georgia Bailway. Company, to recover damages for the negligent destruction by fire of 3,113 bales of cotton. To the original petition the defendant filed general and special demurrers, attacking the petition as duplicitous, in that it did not clearly appear from its various allegations whether the defendant was sued as a common carrier for failure to safely, transport and deliver the cotton, or as a warehouseman for failing to exercise- ordinary care in properly storing and protecting the cotton, or for negligently setting the cotton on fire by the operation of defective engines. The special demurrers were aimed at specific paragraphs of the petition, because of indefinite allegations. The petition was twice amended, and afterwards the court passed on the various demurrers, overruling some, sustaining others, and adjudging the petition as amended to be insufficient, but allowed the plaintiffs ten days in which to amend the petition to meet the demurrers so sustained. Within the time limited the plaintiffs presented a third amendment^ striking both of the former amendments and certain paragraphs in the original petition, and adding other paragraphs thereto. The last amendment was allowed over the defendant’s objections, and to the petition as amended the defendant renewed its demurrers, with additional grounds, including an objection that the last amendment introduced a new cause of action. The court overruled all the demurrers to the petition as thus amended, and the defendant excepts to this judgment, and also to the judgment of the court on its demurrers before the petition was last amended.
A consideration of the intermediate amendments and so much of the judgment on demurrer as relates to them is rendered unnecessary by their elimination from the petition by the last amendment. The only practical questions' left are whether there was enough to amend by in the original petition; and if so, was the last amendment germane, and sufficient to remove the various objections raised by special demurrers. The substance of the case set out in the original petition was, that plaintiffs had shipped over the defendant’s railway to Columbus, Georgia, a certain number of
Throughout the original petition the pleader’s purpose is manifest to declare on a liability arising from the destruction of the plaintiff’s cotton by fire originating from the negligent operation of the defendant’s locomotives. There were some indefinite references tending to imply an intention to also hold the defendant liable for failure to deliver or properly store the cotton, but such were removed by the last amendment. If a cause of action be stated in a petition, confusing or inappropriate allegations may be eliminated by amendment. Hodges v. Wheeler, 126 Ga. 848 (56 S. E. 76); Rushin v. Central Ry. Co., 128 Ga. 726 (58 S. E. 357). The only matter contained in the last amendment was a more accurate and definite description of the cotton, and an enumeration of the various acts of the defendant which were alleged to have resulted in the loss of the cotton by fire. ' The cause of action in the original petition was for the loss of cotton by fire negligently set out by the defendant company’s engines, and the amendment did not
Judgment affirmed.