13 Ga. App. 498 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1913
As to the main bill of exceptions, which complains of the grant of a new trial, the case is fully controlled by the decision of the Supreme Court in Smith v. Maddox-Rucker Banking Co., 135 Ga. 151 (68 S. E. 1031), where it was held that “Where the verdict was not demanded by the law and evidence, the Supreme Court will not disturb the first grant of a new trial, though it was upon a single ground, nor will it determine whether the trial court was right in granting a motion on a special ground. This is a rule without an exception.” Therefore, as to the main bill of exceptions, the judgment must be affirmed.
The code of this State defines a common carrier as “one who pursues the business constantly or continuously for any period of time, or any distance of transportation;” and it declares that such a carrier “is bound to use extraordinary diligence.” Civil Code (1910), § 2712. In section 2714, it is declared that “a carrier of passengers is bound also to extraordinary diligence on behalf of himself and. his agents to protect the lives and persons of his passengers.” Unquestionably, under this definition, one who carries passengers on an elevator from floor to floor of a large office building, or of a hotel, constantly and continuously, is a carrier of passengers. No rational distinction in principle can be based on the fact that the passengers are carried vertically rather than horizontally; and the distance the passengers-are carried is not material. True, the passenger on an elevator pays to the owner of the elevator no fare or hire for his carriage; but payment for this service is made to the owner by his tenants, by reason of the fact that their rental is increased in proportion to the facility of the service given to them by. the owner. In other words, this increased rental is equivalent to the fare paid to railroad or street-car companies. Certainly the danger to the passenger on an elevator is as great as the danger to a passenger on a railroad train or street-car. 'Persons who are lifted by elevators are subject to great risks of life and limb. They are hoisted vertically; they have no power over the running of the elevator, and are unable, in case of the breaking of the machinery of the elevator, to help themselves. In their passage from floor to floor they are absolutely at the mercy of the owner’s employee who runs the elevator. They must depend upon his skill and upon his attention to duty; and in our opinion there is no employment where the law should demand a higher degree of care and diligence than in the case of persons using and running elevators for lifting human beings from one level to another. The danger is great, and the utmost care and diligence should be re