112 Ga. 901 | Ga. | 1901
. The bill of exceptions now before us, among other things, assigns error upon the refusal of the trial court to grant a nonsuit. The action was brought by Hamilton against the Central of Georgia Railway Company and the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah, for personal injuries. Before any evidence was introduced, “ the plaintiff dismissed his suit as to the defendant Central of Georgia Railway Company, and the cause proceeded against the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah as sole defendant.” The word “defendant” will, therefore, hereinafter be used to designate the Steamship Company. The petition alleged, and the answer of the defendant admitted, that the plaintiff was an employee of T. S. Wylly & Co.; that, as such, he was working upon a wharf belonging to the defendant; that “Wylly & Co. were then and there using the said wharf by and with the consent of the said defendant,” and that the particular business in which the plaintiff was employed as a servant of Wylly & Co. was that of “ moving lumber and loading the same on vessels moored at said wharf.” The tenth paragraph of the petition was as follows: “Petitioner alleges negligence upon the part of defendants in having and keeping in a dangerous condition the said wharf, and letting the same to petitioner’s employer for the business petitioner was employed in, while it was in such a dangerous condition, and in failing to repair’ the same and to keep the same in repair while it was so let to petitioner’s employer for the business petitioner was employed in.” To this paragraph of the plaintiff’s petition the Steamship Company answered: “This defendant admits, as stated in the tenth
While under section 3118 of the Civil Code a landlord is responsible to a servant of his tenant “for damages arising from defective construction, or for damages from failure to keep the premises in repair,” he is not hable because of a failure to repair a defect of which he neither knew nor ought in the exercise of reasonable diligence to have known. Properly construed, this section does not make a landlord responsible as an insurer, but liable only in the event he fails to comply with his statutory duty of keeping the premises in repair. The provisions of this section were in large part codified from the decision of this court in White v. Montgomery, 58 Ga. 204, in which it was clearly ruled that the duty of a landlord to make repairs did not arise, unless he either knew from personal observation of the existence of the defects, or was in some manner put upon notice thereof. In delivering the opinion of the court, Jackson, J., cited approvingly the case of Guthman v. Castleberry,48 Ga. 172, 49 Ga. 272, wherein it was held that before a landlord was under a duty of making repairs, notice to him.of the need thereof was requisite, unless he was
Judgment reversed.