114 Ga. 284 | Ga. | 1901
The plaintiff sued the Southern Railway Company for damages alleged to have been sustained by him by reason of his having been unlawfully expelled from one of its passenger-trains. Leaving out certain allegations in reference to the nature and extent of the injury, his petition made the following case. “ On the 14th day of January, 1899, the plaintiff applied to the defendant, through its agent R. L. Fields, at its ticket office at Bremen, Ga., to purchase a ticket from Bremen to Temple on its line of road, for the purpose of taking passage on the regular passenger-train, which was due to arrive at Bremen at about 9.45 o’clock a. m.” He made the application to such agent “ about thirty minutes before said train was due to arrive, and was told by [the] agent that he could not sell a ticket for said train to Temple, but that it was the custom to ask the conductor, when the train arrived, if he would have occasion to stop the train at Temple, and, if the train should stop at Temple, the conductor would accept plaintiff as a passenger on the same from Bremen to Temple, and would charge only the ticket rate of fare, which regular fare was twenty-five cents.” When the train arrived at Bremen, the plaintiff ascertained from the conductor thereof that it would stop at Temple, and “ he accordingly went- aboard said train, under said instructions, for the purpose of making said trip from Bremen to Temple. . . Soon after the train left Bremen, said conductor came to plaintiff to collect his fare, and plaintiff, having the exact change, handed him twenty-five cents, which he took but refused to accept as full fare for said trip, but demanded four cents per mile as train fare.” Plaintiff declined to pay the additional charge, and was by the conductor ejected from the train. “ It was the custom of said defendant to accept and transport passengers from Bremen to Temple . . without tickets, and for only three cents per mile, on all occasions when said train would stop at Temple for any purpose.” When the case came on for trial, the defendant moved to dismiss it, on the ground that no cause of action was set forth in the petition. The court sustained this motion, and the plaintiff excepted.
The defendant in error relies upon the decision rendered in Johnson v. Georgia Railroad, & Banking Co., 108 Ga. 496. There the petition showed that the plaintiff, on a designated Sunday, went to the depot of the defendant at Dunlap, for the purpose of purchasing a round-trip ticket from that station to Crawford, another station on the defendant’s line of road. Dunlap was a regular ticket station, and it -was the custom of the defendant to issue round-trip tickets, on Sundays, from Dunlap to Crawford, for the sum of twenty-four cents, which was less than the' regular fare of three cents per mile. The plaintiff, being aware of these facts, went to Dunlap about one hour and a half before the train was due upon which he’ desired to take passage, and remained there all the while and sought to procure a ticket, but the ticket-office was not open, nor was there
Judgment reversed.