76 Ga. 311 | Ga. | 1886
Findley sued the City and Suburban Railway Company for injuries occasioned by the negligence of its servants in running the car, he being a passenger thereon. The jury gave him a verdict for $1,500.00, andón a motion for a new trial being denied, the Railway Company assigns error on the several grounds taken in its motion.
On a very careful reading of all the evidence in the record, we are very clear that the verdict is supported overwhelmingly by the evidence, if indeed.it be not demanded by it. The plaintiff swears positively to the manner in which he was hurt. ■ As he stepped off the car, with one foot on the ground and the other on the steps of the car, the driver drove off, which gave him a jerk, threw him on the ground and dislocated his hip, broke his leg right thereto use his own language. The man who helped him up, living or doing business near by,, heard his exclamation, “ I am hurt,” and went to his help and took him into his shop. He saw where he was hurt, right where he landed .from the car, but did not see how it was done. The fact that he was laid up many months in the hospital, sunered
The only evidence to the contrary, that he was hurt by the negligence of the driver, is that of the driver, and it is very unsatisfactory. He knew nothing at all about the disaster. His habit, he says, was to stop till all got off, and on this occasion, on that night, he did so ; he adds, after stating that he knew nothing about the hurt of a passenger right at the car, though a man in his shop or store heard his exclamation of distress. Central Railroad v. Sanderg, 73 Ga., 513.
When it is considered that extraordinary diligence is that required of the carrier of passengers, as well on a street oar as on regular cars propelled by steam from city to city; that when one is hurt by reason of its carriage, the presumption is always against the carrier; and that the only evidence of having used even ordinary care in landing his passenger is from the driver (whose business it was, there being no conductor, to see his passenger safely landed before he started, after stopping to let him land), who testifies that he did not know of the hurt of the passenger at all, though the evidence is certain that he was there hurt, but that his habit was to stop till all got off, and that he did so that night. How can it be said that the verdict is not supported by evidence enough for it to rest upon ? Doubtless the driver may have thought he saw all off, but he did not leave his post a moment; he evidently looked back in the car and saw nobody there, and thinking that all were landed^ started the horse, and the man was crippled.
This is the truth, and it reconciles aji the evidence. When the driver looked back, the plaintiff was on the step with one foot, and on the ground with the other, and the driver did not see him, and hence did not know even that he fell there and was hurt there. Is this extraordinary diligence? Was not the driver slightly neglectful? It seems so to us, as it seemed from the charge of the presiding judge, we gather, to him, to be much more than slight
That a carrier is bound to extraordinary diligence in carrying passengers, and that slight neglect only fixes responsibility upon them, see Code, §2067; and that this rule applies 1 o street railway carriers, see Holly vs. The Atlanta Street Railroad, 61 Ga., 215.
Therefore this verdict is supported by the evidence and sustained by the law.
Judgment;affirmed.- - . . . ......