7 Ga. App. 484 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1910
The plaintiff in error brought a suit for damages against the Southern Bell Telephone and. Telegraph Company for $1,999, alleging that in the commission of an inexcusable trespass on his premises and a wilful invasion of his rights, the defendant intentionally, wilfully, and maliciously removed his telephone from his home, thereby working great inconvenience to him and his family. It is further alleged that the suspension of the telephone service, by removing the telephone, was for the purpose of humiliating him and wounding his feelings and sensibilities, and had that effect; he therefore asked also for punitive damages. The jury awarded damages in the sum of thirty cents; and the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial being overruled, he brought the case to this •court upon writ of error.
1, 2. We have carefully examined the record and find no reason authorizing a reversal of the judgment. It is true that the finding in favor of the plaintiff is exceedingly minute in amount, and yet it sustained (as a matter of principle) his contention that .there had been an invasion of his rights. As no special damage
3. To pursue one step further this comedy of errors (as we think the jury really found, and were authorized to find it to be), the plaintiff had -no occasion to use his telephone that night, and did not discover the absence of this inmate of his house until the next morning. After communicating with a number of the officials of the defendant company, by means of a neighbor’s tele
There was no error in refusing the request to charge; for the reason that all of the principles of law embodied in the request, so far as applicable to the case, are substantially presented in the general charge.
The exception contained in the seventh ground of the motion for a new trial, to the effect that the court did not instruct the jury as to the issues made by the pleadings, can not, as to the matter pointed out by the plaintiff in error, be an advantage to him; because it is apparent, from the fact that there was a recovery in his behalf, that the jury found the allegations in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of the petition to be true. Judgment affirmed.