119 Ga. 789 | Ga. | 1904
This was an action against a railroad company for damages to a shipment of horses, the negligence alleged being that the defendant “put and shipped said horses in a car which was wholly unfit and defectively equipped for the shipment of horses.” The court directed a verdict for the defendant." To this ruling, to the .refusal-to allow an amendment to the declaration, and to the admission and rejection of certain evidence the plaintiffs except.
The. court did right to direct a verdict for the defendant, as under the evidence there could have been. no legal recovery by the plaintiffs. There is no contention that the injuries sustained by the horses were occasioned in any other way than through the failure-to have upon the floor of the car bedding or slatting of such a character as to give them a firm foothold and enable them to stand securely; and by the terms of the contract into which the plaintiffs entered,.the equipment of the floor of the car for this purpose was a task which devolved entirely upon them. But it is contended that when Dillingham ordered that the horses be taken out of the car in Shelbyville, and declined to let them be shipped in a car in' the condition, in which it was, the contract was annulled, and from that moment the common-law relation of carrier and shipper existed between the parties. While it is true, according to Dillingham’s testimony, that he refused ,to' agree that the stock should be shipped in' the car in which it was at first loaded, except at the railroad’s risk, he himself makes it equally clear that before leaving Shelbyville he saw that they had been reloaded in the same car; and that upon arriving in Louisville, far from repudiating the contract, he reaffirmed it by demanding, upon the strength of it, that the mistake in his pass be corrected, and that he be given free transportation to Nashville in accordance with its terms. The contract was reasonable, and was supported by an ample consideration, to wit,- the reduction of the rate of freight by pne half. -See, in this connection, Central R. Co. v. Glascock, 117 Ga. 938. Having thus ratified it and accepted-a benefit under it, he must stand by its provisions. As before stated, it is not disputed that' the injuries sustained by the stock were due to the failure to so prepare the floor of the ca'r as to enable them to stand securely while the train was in motion. That was a duty which, under the contract, devolved upon the plaintiffs; and it follows that they can not recover from the railroad company for the damage done.
Judgment affirmed.