133 Ga. 413 | Ga. | 1909
George M. Riley and his wife brought suit against the Wnightsville & Tennille Railroad Company and the Southern Railway Company, seeking to recover damages, which they laid at $30,000. By amendment George M. Riley was stricken from the case, leaving it to proceed in the name of Mrs. Riley. ' As amended, the allegations on which she sought to recover were sub
As to the first ground stated, in order to charge the defendants or either of them with negligence, if there was any, because certain information was given to the plaintiff, it was necessary that it should appear that the person who furnished it represented them or one of them. It was alleged in the original petition that Mr. and Mrs. Riley purchased two tickets from Dublin to Macon over the lines of the defendants; but there was no allegation as to whom they purchased the tickets from, whether the agent of one of the defendants, or of the other, or of both, or of neither. It was not even alleged that they were purchased at the ticket-office, of either of the defendants.
The second ground stated above, taken alone, evidently set out no negligence which would form basis for recovery. The mere fact that no train passed the junction point within an hour after a passenger reached it over another road was not ipso facto negligence on the part of either company.
If the petition set forth any right to recover, it must rest on the third ground above indicated, namely, the requiring of the plaintiff, with her husband and two children, to leave the waiting-room, in the dark, and closing and locking it up before ten o’clock at night, and before the arrival of the connecting train to await which she had been shown into the waiting-room, there being an
Tn some of the States there are statutes on the subject of keeping open waiting-rooms. Most of these have reference to waiting-rooms at stations where the traveller begins or ends his journey, are for the benefit of travellers entering or leaving trains at those points, and deal with such a situation rather than with a waiting-room at a junction, for "through passengers. The act of 1906 (Acts 1906, p. 101) was passed shortly after the occurrence involved in this suit, and therefore need not be considered. In the absence of a special law on the subject, the general rule is that a railroad company may make reasonable rules in regard to its depots and waiting-rooms. A person going to a station has no absolute right to require the waiting-room to be kept open and in comfortable condition for passengers an unreasonable length of time before that fixed for the departure of the train, nor to use the room for lying down and sleeping. Central Ry. Co. v. Motes, 117 Ga. 923 (43 S. E. 990, 62 L. R. A. 507, 97 Am. St. R. 223); Brown v. Georgia, C. & N. Ry. Co., 119 Ga. 88 (46 S. E. 71) ; Phillips v. Southern Ry. Co., 124 N. C. 123 (32 S. E. 388, 45 L. R. A. 163). It will be observed that the two cases last cited involved taking a train at a starting point, not waiting at a junction, by a passenger over two roads; and the suit in the Brown case was also held to be for a breach of contract as to passage on a particular train. In St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Foster, 112 S. W. 797) the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas held that where a railroad company sold through tickets from a point on one of its lines to a point on another, and the passengers had to wait at a junction, in making necessary changes, from one train to another, they were still its passengers and entitled tb remain in the waiting-room until the arrival of their train. This differed from the present case in that the two lines were those of the same company. But the opinion discusses the difference between initial points and junctions, and persons entering on their journey and through passengers. In Phillips v. Southern Ry. Co. supra, this distinction was recognized by Furches, J., who said: “The rule would probably ho different in the case of through passengers and in case of delayed trains; but, if so, these would be exceptions, not the rule.” If the contention of each of the defendants were sustained, the re-
As against the general demurrer, the petition set out a cause of action. Some of the grounds of the special demurrers were met by amendments; others were not.
Counsel for plaintiff in error in his brief requested, that, if this court should hold that the presiding judge erred in sustaining the general demurrer, but that one or more grounds of special demurrer were well taken, direction should be given that he have the privilege of amending to meet such grounds. The presiding judge sustained the grounds of the demurrers generally, thus including both the general and special grounds. More than two years have elapsed since the transaction complained of occurred, and if the dismissal shoirld be affirmed, the bar of the statute might have attached. In view of the facts of the ease, we think it a proper one for the exercise of the directory power of this court, to reverse the ruling on the general demurrer, affirm the ruling sustaining the grounds of special demurrer above indicated, and direct that the plaintiff be given a reasonable opportunity to amend so as to meet such grounds, before the case shall be dismissed.
Judgment reversed, with direction.