110 Ga. 665 | Ga. | 1900
Lippman instituted an action against the Central of Georgia Railway Company, to recover damages for injuries
"Mileage Ticket No. 3756.
“P. Lippman, Macon, Ga., is entitled to travel 1000 miles on the Central of Georgia Railway Company, upon the conditions named in the contract attached and made a part hereof. This ticket will not be duplicated if lost.
Not good unless stamped here. [Signed] J. O. Haile,
[Stamp of the company.] Gen’l Passenger Agt.
“ Contract.
“ The conditions upon which this coupon mileage ticket is sold by the Central of Georgia Railway Company and purchased by the holder are as follows: . . 4th. That it is good on either passenger or way freight-trains, and entitles the purchaser to stop only at stations which by the time-card are designated as regular stopping-places of the train on which it is presented.. 5th. That for and in consideration of being permitted to use this' mileage ticket for passage on the way freight-trains, T hereby release the company from all liability in case of personal injury, or for loss or damage to baggage, while using said freight-trains. . . 17th. This ticket expires one year from date of sale. I have purchased this ticket and agree to use it subject to the above conditions. [Signed] P. Lippman. ”
On the list of stations there appeared Gray’s station and Round Oak, designated as regular stopping-places.
A number of grounds, in addition to those assigning as error that the verdict was contrary to the law and evidence, are sot out in the motion. After a careful examination of these, -read in connection with the evidence and charge of thé court applicable to each, we find it necessary only to consider and pass upon those specifically enumerated hereafter. In relation to those grounds of the motion not thus specifically considered, it is sufficient, in a general way, to say that in our opinion there was no error in overruling the demurrer which was filed to the
In the Phillips case, supra, the point involved was, whether there was an express contract which rendered the undertaking
. Resuming.-.consideration of the proposition that the provisions of the section, of the code now. under consideration do not apply to a.carrier of passengers, it is significant that under this section.the, carrier who .may limit his legal liability by express contract is idgnominated' a “ common carrier. ” These provisions were taken from the -common .law, and first became a part of our written law by-.’the adoption of the Code of 1863, and are found -in section .2041.of .that code-in precisely the same language as they appear, in .the Code of 1895. The Code of Í863 was, under .-the. act .of .December 9, 1858, compiled by codifiers charged with, the duty of .preparing' a code of laws for" this State, which should embrace in a' condensed form the laws of Georgia, .whether derived from the common law, the constitution, of the State, the statutes-of the State, the decisions of the Supreme Court, or the statutes of England of force in this State. -To ascertain the meaning of'the section, therefore, reference is not to be had to a legislative' intent, because the law there embraced was not the creation of our legislative -body. Of course under the act adopting the Code of 1895 it is made to assume-the .dignity of written law. Rut, nevertheless, • it can not, as written law, have any 'other and different application than it had at common law, because in incorporating it into the code its meaning was not changed, nor the application of the principles it. contained extended. The- term “common carrier” did not at.the common law embrace a carrier of passengers. Neither does it under the definition found in the code in connection with section 2276. Nor are the liabilities of a common carrier and a carrier of passengers the same, either at common law or'under Our statutes. A common carrier is defined by Bouvier.to.be “One whose business, Occupation, or' regular calling it is,to carry chattels for all persons -who'may-choose to
But it is not necessary that we should go further, in order to show that at common law the definition of a common carrier was confined to one who transported goods. All the text-writers, so far as we know, confine this appellation to such carriers. Indeed, our Civil Code, §§2263,2264, defines a common carrier to be one who undertakes to transport goods for a compensation and who pursues the business constantly or continuously for any period of time, or any distance of transportation. These sections were likewise taken from the common law, and in connection with section 2276, the meaning of which we are now considering, were codified and placed together in the Code of 1863, and, to show that a distinction was meant to exist, another provision of the common law in reference to carriers of passengers was placed in immediate connection with them in the Code of 1863 at the same time, and appears now as section 2266 of our Civil Code/which declares that a carrier
Now, as the provisions of the code, taken from the common law, deal separately with the liabilities of common carriers and carriers of passengers, and make a distinction between these carriers by designating a common carrier as a carrier of goods, this common-law meaning given to the words “common carrier ” must go with them into the code, when the meaning of a cognate section, which limits the right to fix liability to common carriers, is to be ascertained. At common law, and under the statute (Civil Code, §2264), a common carrier was an insurer of the goods which he undertook to transport. Such was his legal liability, and he was made 'to answer in dollars and cents for the value of goods lost or destroyed, unless such loss or destruction was occasioned by the act of God or the enemies of the King. No such liability extends to the carrier of passengers, and, strange as it may seem, both at common law and under our statute, the responsibility of a passenger carrier for the lives and persons of his passengers is less in degree than that of a common carrier in the transportation of goods. The former is bound only to extraordinary diligence; the latter not only to extraordinary diligence, but, if the goods are injured or destroyed, no excuse avails him, unless such injury or destruction was occasioned by the act of God or the public enemies of the State. The reasons are obvious: A box of goods remains where it is placed; a man has the power of locomotion and a will. When a carrier receives the first, he has absolute control; while his control of
Section 2276 of the Civil Code simply prescribes the common-law rule applicable exclusively to carriers of goods, and the legal liability referred to in the section is the liability which the law imposed on such carriers as insurers of the goods which they undertook to transport, and did not have and could not have, from the difference in the nature of the liability of -each, any reference to a carrier of passengers. 'But it may be said that, as by the provision made in the section a common •carrier could not limit his legal liability by entry on “tickets .sold,” it was the contemplation that such an inhibition should apply to passenger carriers, because tickets are only sold to and for the transportation of passengers. The reply to this sugges-. ■tion is, that as to the baggage of passengers the carrier is un
It is, therefore, not illogical that the Civil Code should provide, as it does in section 2288, that a carrier of passengers may limit the value of the baggage to be taken for the fare j>aid, because such a carrier of passengers is, as to the baggage of the passenger a common carrier, and it would seem, under the operation of section 2276, that while this limit of liability can not be made by a notice given, nor- by an entry on the ticket sold to the passenger, it may be accomplished by an express contract made between the passenger who owns the baggage and the carrier who receives it, and that both will be governed by the terms of such contract. In the case of Southern Express Company v. Newby, 36 Ga. 635, this court ruled that an express company which pursues continuously the business of transporting goods is a common carrier, and, quoting exactly the section of the code under consideration, declared that “ Our code has incorporated the rules of the common law, as expounded in Georgia, in Fish vs. Chapman, 2 Kelly, and with it we are satisfied.” A reference to the case in 2 Kelly will ■show a very learned and comprehensive treatment of the right of a common carrier to limit his liability by notice. In the case of Southern Express Company v. Purcell, 37 Ga. 103, Chief Justice Warner, after declaring that the liability of a common carrier is regulated by law on the ground of public policy, and that he can not be permitted by his own act to limit the effect and operation of that law and thereby defeat that public policy, quotes the section of the code now under consideration and declares that “The legal liability of a common carrier as defined by the law is one thing; his legal liability as a common carrier, under an express contract made with the shipper, is another and quite a different thing. In the latter case, his liability will depend upon the terms of that express contract, and will be governed by it.” Further on in the same opinion he says, “ the common carrier and the shipper may enter into an express contract, outside of the receipt given for the goods, in regard to the carrier’s liability, and then both parties,
We have taken much time and occupied a good deal of space-in endeavoring to show that the provisions of this section of the-code are not applicable to a carrier of passengers. We have-done so because the question is an important one, and also because a different ruling would seem, to have been made in other-cases decided by this court, to which reference has been made. But a final and conclusive answer to the proposition that this section does not apply to a carrier of passengers is found in the-generally accepted proposition that a carrier of passengers- for-hire can not avoid, even by an express contract, his liability for negligence. So far, we do not know that it has ever been doubted in this State that a carrier of passengers can not by contract or otherwise avoid his liability for the negligence of’ himself or servants. • The compilers of the American & English Encyclopaedia of Law declare that such is the well-settled-rule by the decisions of the Federal courts and the great weight of authority in the several States, and for this proposition they cite 112 U. S. 331; 87 Wis. 485; 67 Fed. Rep. 209; 19 Ohio St. 1; 82 Mo. 292; 71 Tex. 409; 19 S. C. 353. In the case of Central Railroad Co. v. Lockwood, 17 Wall, 357, the Supreme Court of the United States laid down three propositions on this subject: first, that a common carrier could not lawfully stipu
We have given to the principles of law involved in this case ■careful consideration, and, in our opinion, they were properly stated by the trial judge in his instructions to the jury; and as there was evidence sufficient to sustain the verdict which they rendered, the court did not err in overruling the motion for a new trial.
Judgment a-ffirmed.