1 Ga. App. 33 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1907
W. A. Cole sued the Georgia Railway and Electric Company for injuries received by him while a passenger on one of its ears. _On the trial of the case the jury, under the evidence and the instructions of the court, found a verdict for the plaintiff. A motion was made 'by the defendant for a-new trial, which being overruled,' was by proper assignment of error brought to this court. -In addition to the general grounds contained "in the motion for a new trial, certain specific grounds of error are assigned. The general grounds are not meritorious, as the verdict is fully supported by the evidence, and the trial judge was' satisfied therewith.
It is insisted by the very able counsel for.the plaintiff in error, that at the time the plaintiff got on board the car, the defendant had extended no invitation, either express or implied, for him to become a passenger; that the plaintiff himself testified that before he undertook to board the car, he saw that the preparations for the return trip had not been completed, and ’that both the employees in charge of the car were actively engaged in making such preparations; and that the motorman, by a “forbidding glance,” brought him to a lialt upon the step of the car. It may be true that preparations to start the car on the return trip had not been completed when the'plaintiff got aboard, but there is no evidence whatever tending to show that at that time the ear was not ready to receive intended passengers. On the contrary, it is indisputably shown that the ear was at the place on the track for the reception of passengers, that the doors were open, and that the passengers were in the act of getting on the car, — among them being the plaintiff, for the purpose of being conveyed to the city. Readiness to start the car is entirely different from readiness to receive passengers, and the latter usually precedes the former. Under the uncontroverted facts in this case, it would be as reasonable to say that a person was not a passenger who was sitting in the railroad car, at the railroad station, for the purpose, of becoming" a passenger, because the engine had not been coupled to the cars and the conductor had not given the signal to start. An examination of the evidence fails to show any word, act, or glance of the motorman forbidding the plaintiff from getting on the car, and we can not think that because he saw that the employees were adjusting the trolley -and the controller preparatory to starting, these facts indicated that the car was not ready for his reception. The indisputable facts and circumstances, and all reasonable inferences therefrom, clearly establish the legal conclusion that the relation of passenger and carrier did exist' at the time the plaintiff received his injuries; and the court did not err in so instructing the jury. This proposition is so obviously sound as hardly to require the support of authorities. We cite a few eases decided by the Supreme Court of this State on