144 Ga. 173 | Ga. | 1915
Moss & Company instituted an action on the case against the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, for damages. The basis of the action was negligence of the defendant in allowing sparks to escape from one of its engines, which set fire to the warehouse of the Athens Compress Company in which cotton belonging to plaintiffs was stored with cotton belonging to other persons, resulting in the burning of the cotton, and causing the plaintiffs to sustain damage in a stated, amount. On the trial, after conclusion of the evidence offered by both parties, the judge directed a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiffs made a motion for new trial, which contained the usual general grounds and one which complained of the direction of the verdict and averred that the case should have been submitted to the jury. The motion was overruled, and the plaintiffs excepted.
We think that under these circumstances the evidence as to the amount of damages to the plaintiffs’ property was not too indefinite to support a verdict for substantial damages. In a case of this kind the amount of damages is of necessity a matter of opinion to be drawn by the jury from all the facts and circumstances. Proof of
Judgment reversed.