118 Ga. 227 | Ga. | 1903
An action for damages was brought by Mrs. Susie Hobbs against the Southern Bailway Company, the plaintiff relying for a recovery upon the following allegations of fact: On December 22,1900, about 10 o’clock p. m., she took passage from Birmingham, Ala., to Bremen, Ga., over the company’s line of railway. Soon after its train left Birmingham, the conductor in charge thereof came to her and took up her ticket, “and petitioner then and there got said conductor to agree to assist petitioner in alighting from the train at Bremen, and to assist her to the depot,” she informing him that “she was traveling alone and had more baggage than she could manage, and, besides, she was partially blind,, wherefore it would be almost impossible to travel unassisted.” The conductor “ assured her that he would see her off the train all right.” When the train reached Tallapoosa, Ga., she repeated her request for assistance, and he “reassured her that he would take care of her, and requested that petitioner be not alarmed.” The-conductor “did not enter the car that she was in after the traia
The defendant company interposed a demurrer to the plaintiff’s
That Mrs. Hobbs informed the conductor of her intention to leave the train at Bremen, and that he assured her “he would take care of her and requested that petitioner be not alarmed,” were relevant and material circumstances to be alleged, as showing she had exercised all the diligence to be reasonably expected of her in the matter, -and that the conductor had full and ample notice of her desire to leave the train at a designated station. That she further informed the conductor she was partially blind and was traveling unattended was likewise relevant, since “ if any passenger needs an unusual time to get off, by reason of physical infirmity, he must notify the conductor of the fact.” 2 Sher. & Redf. Neg. (5th ed.), § 508, p. 924. That the conductor promised Mrs. Hobbs to “see her off the train all right” was another fact germane to her case as laid; and it was proper to allege this promise, if given, as indicating that the conductor understood what she told him concerning
In its motion for a new trial, exception was taken to certain instructions which the court gave the jury touching the failure of the company’s conductor to comply with the promise of assistance which she claimed he had made to her. These instructions were not nicely adjusted to the pleadings or the evidence; for they were based on the theory that the company’s liability depended exclusively upon whether or not such a promise was given and ignored by the conductor. Counsel for the railway company requested the court to charge the jury as follows: “ If you believe that the promise of the conductor was, as alleged, to help the plaintiff ‘ alight,’ and that the conductor was at the proper and usual place to help the plaintiff alight when the train arrived at Bremen, then his failure to go into the car and get plaintiff would not make the defendant company liable.” We think this request should not have been, as it was, refused. Mrs. Hobbs testified, as a witness in her own behalf, that when the train stopped at the Bremen station she kept her seat and waited “ just a moment” for thfe conductor to come and assist her, and that she then “got up and started to the door to see if [she] could see any light at the depot,” but before she “got to the door, the train started;” that the train stopped “just a few
A contract of carriage on the part of a carrier of passengers differs essentially, as a general rule, from that of a carrier of goods, since the latter assumes the duty not only of transporting to destination but of unloading its cars as well. So it is universally held that, as to passengers able to help themselves in entering and leaving a train, a railway company is under no duty either to load or unload them, provided it furnishes suitable means for safely boarding and alighting from its cars. There was, in the present case, no pretense on the part of the plaintiff that she was unable to leave her seat in the car and walk without assistance down the aisle and out upon the platform, carrying her bundles with her, and there presenting herself and them to the conductor. She was but eighteen years of age at the time, and her only physical infirmity, so far as was shown at the trial, was partial blindness, she being near
It appears that the trial judge permitted the plaintiff to prove that it was “ a custom on the road for conductors to lend especial assistance to” female passengers, when traveling unattended. Counsel for the company made timely objection to the admission of evidence along this line, because there “ was no allegation in the petition that would authorize any such evidence to go to the jury,” and on the further ground that it was irrelevant and immaterial-
Judgment reversed. By four Justices.