52 Ga. App. 677 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1936
J. W. Cowan brought an action against the Georgia Eailroad and Banking Company and its lessees, the Atlantic Coast Line Eailroad Company and the Louisville & Nashville Eailroad Company, to recover damages arising out of a collision between the plaintiff’s automobile and a “coal or box car” standing on a public street-crossing in the City of Conyers, Georgia. The sole question is whether the judge erred in sustaining a general demurrer to the petition as amended.
By paragraph, the pertinent parts of the petition are substantially as follows: (4) Two of the defendants’ railroad-tracks “immediately parallel of each other,” and running easterly and westerly “in a straight line,” cross a much-traveled street known as “Center Street” in Conyers, Georgia, at a distance of three hundred yards from defendants’ depot. “The northernmost of said tracks is a side-track and the southernmost the main track.” (5) “On the morning of November 6, 1934, at . . 5:30 o’clock, . . petitioner approached . . Center Street crossing from a northerly direction, driving his Ford automobile coupé. . . Upon approaching the northernmost rail of the . . side track, he brought his automobile to a complete stop before proceeding to cross either rail of either of said . . tracks.” (6) “It being completely dark, petitioner, upon approaching said crossing had both headlights of his automobile burning brightly.” (7) “Petitioner, with his automobile completely still, before driving upon said tracks, looked in all directions to see whether a train was approaching, and whether the crossing was clear and unobstructed, and .listened to see if he could hear a train approaching, [and] seeing the passenger-train, commonly known as the ‘express,’
(16) At the time of said collision there was a valid ordinance of the City of Conyers, making it a penal offense for defendants to leave said car on the crossing longer than ten minutes, the ordinance being fully pleaded. (17) Center Street is a public street within the corporate limits of Conyers. (18) “Petitioner charges . . that the negligence” of the defendants was the proximate cause of his injuries, and that the defendants were negligent in the following particulars: (a) “In blocking said crossing, in violation of the ordinance” of Conyers, (b) “In blocking and obstructing said crossing at said time and place.” (c) “In failing
Paragraph 10 of the petition was amended by adding the following: 10(a) “The headlight of said express train was a peculiarly dazzling electric headlight, which blinded petitioner when he reached or became engulfed in the rays of said . . headlight, which made it impossible for him to see what was ahead of him.” 10(b) “That upon his approaching said crossing, the headlight of said express train, on account of its extreme brightness and dazzling nature, and its being thrown at right angles across the light beams of petitioner’s automobile, completely cut off and nullified the light thrown by the headlight of petitioner’s automobile, making it impossible for him to see beyond or to the location on said crossing occupied by said box-car.” 10(c) “That when petitioner drove upon said crossing and on the rails, or immediately adjacent to the rails of said track north of the main track, he became engulfed in the light thrown by the headlight of the express train, and was momentarily blinded thereby, and he did not and could not see said box or coal car until he had collided therewith as herein set forth.”
Paragraph 18 was amended by adding the following: (f) “The defendant was negligent in failing to provide a red or other light which would have been visible to petitioner and would have apprised him of the presence on said crossing of said box or coal ear, [and] but for the failure so to do petitioner would not have suffered the injuries or incurred the damages set forth in the petition.” (g) “Said defendant was negligent in failing to hail or otherwise warn petitioner as he approached the crossing, and thus apprise him of the danger which confronted him, but for the failure so to do petitioner would not have suffered the injuries or incurred the damages set forth in the petition.”
The night was dark, but the headlights of the automobile were burning brightly, and, so far as the petition shows, there was nothing to prevent the plaintiff from seeing the freight-car from the time it came within range of his headlights until he ran into it, except the powerful light from the headlight of the locomotive “thrown at right angles across the light beams of petitioner’s automobile.” Could not the plaintiff, by exercising the care of looking ahead of him, have seen the car standing on the crossing in front of him between the time said car came within the range of the light from the headlights of his automobile and the time when “he reached or became engulfed in the rays of said express headlight” and blinded thereby? The plaintiff says he could not. With this conclusion we can not agree. “We know from observation that two rays of light will cross each other without in any way interfering with one another. The feeble rays from a faintly illuminated object will cross a region traversed by rays of greater intensity without being influenced in any way so far as we can see.” Wood’s “Physical Optics” (new ed.), 119. See also “Theory of Optics” by Schuster and Nicholson (3d. ed.), 56; Drude’s “Theory of Optics,” 134. The meaning of the foregoing statement, as applied to the facts alleged in the petition, is this: The light from the automobile headlights would strike the side of the freight-car and illuminate it. Some of this light would be diffusedly reflected back to the eye of the driver of the automobile and form a real image of the freight car on the retina of his eye. The passage of this light from the headlights of the automobile to the side of the freight-car and back to the retina of the driver’s eye would not be affected by encountering the light from the headlight of the locomotive. “An allegation in pleading which contradicts anything of which the court must take judicial cognizance
Judgment affirmed.