113 Ga. 297 | Ga. | 1901
The evidence was sufficient to make a prima facie case that plaintiff was injured in alighting from0 one of defendant’s trains of cars; and assuming such injuries to have been ascertained, her right of recovery would rest on the determination of two questions: First, was it negligence on her part to attempt to alight when the car on which she was riding was in motion. Second, was the person who directed her to leave the car the conductor of the train or other person in charge, representing the company. As will be seen by the above report of the case, the plaintiff testified that when she was' told, by the person whom she thought was the conductor, to get off the car, and was told to be in a hurry, she replied that the train was moving too fast, and that the person apparently in charge told her it was not. The contention of the defendant in error, when carried to its ultimate conclusion, is, that when under any circumstances a passenger attempts to alight from a moving train he is guilty of such negligence as will bar his right of recovery for injuries sustained thereby. We think this is not a sound proposition. In the case of Suber v. Georgia, Carolina & Northern Ry. Co., 96 Ga. 42, this court ruled: “It is not necessarily, as matter of law, negligent for a person to leave a moving train. Whether it is negligent or not in a particular case must depend upon the circumstances of danger attending the act, and the special justification which the person leaving the train had for doing so. Ordinarily, in cases of this kind, the question of what is or is not negligence is one for the jury; and unless the danger is obviously great — as where the train is moving at full speed, — the court can not hold that leaving the train is, as a matter of law, such negligence as should preclude a recovery.” In the case of Covington v. W. & A. R. Co., 81 Ga. 273, referring to the question of negligence in such cases, this court said: “ We have repeatedly decided that the question of what is or is not negligence, in cases of this sort, is exclusively for the jury. It is a mixed question of law and fact, which the jury must settle for itself.” .Also in West End Street Ry. Co. v. Mozely, 79 Ga. 463, it was ruled that whether a person who attempted to alight from a
Judgment reversed.