25 Ga. App. 529 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1920
The First National Bank of Statesboro brought suit against the Savannah & Statesboro Railway Company as initial carrier, for the value of 24 bales of sea-island cotton, which were destroyed by a great conflagration. The cotton in question was delivered to the defendant railway company by C. M. Rushing, and bills of lading were issued to him, with order to notify a certain cotton factory in the city of Savannah. The plaintiff, First National Bank of Statesboro, advanced money to pay for the cotton shipped, and became the transferee of the defendant’s bills of lading. The defendant, in defense to the plaintiff’s contention that it was liable both as a common carrier and as a warehouseman, urged that it had fully complied with its contract as a common carrier, and that its liability, if there was any, was only that of warehouseman. The parties went to trial before a jury on the issue thus raised, and a verdict was returned in favor of the plaintiff for the value of the cotton sued for. Defendant filed a motion for a new trial, and to the order of the judge overruling the motion it excepted, and now asks that the verdict be set aside solely on the ground that it is contrary to law and evidence, and without evidence to support it.
Irrespective of whether or not the defendant was liable as a common carrier, which would require the exercise of extraordinary care in the preservation and protection of the property entrusted to it, there was sufficient evidence to authorize the jury to find that the defendant was liable as a warehouseman. Briefly summarized the evidence adduced on the trial shows that the cotton, at the time it was destroyed by fire, was stored on a pier within 500 feet
This evidence was, as above suggested, sufficient to authorize
Judgment affirmed.