108 Ga. 524 | Ga. | 1899
Mrs. Hudgins brought an action against the Southern Railway Co. In her petition'she set up the following facts to show that the defendant was a domestic (Georgia) corporation as to that part of its road which ran through her land : “ That by an act of the legislature of the State of Georgia, approved March 2nd, 1875, Edward D. Cowman, D. S. Appleton, i . were incorporated as a body corporate under the name and style of the Georgia Southern Railroad Coni
Taking as true the petition for removal, we think the petition of the plaintiff does not set out facts sufficient to enable the court to decide that this was a domestic and not a foreign corporation. It is true that the plaintiff’s petition alleges that the Georgia Southern company was incorporated by the Georgia legislature, and that it descended by various conveyances and is now in the possession of the defendant, and that, “having taken advantage of the rights and privileges granted the Georgia Southern Railroad Company and being in the enjoyment of the same, the said Southern Railway Company became, as to this line of road, a domestic corporation subject to the same liabilities as the Georgia Southern Railroad Company which it succeeded.” The plaintiff does not allege by what kind of conveyances the Georgia Southern descended and came into the possession pf the defendant. As far as appears from this record, it may have been by quitclaim or by lease, or the conveyance may not have included the franchises granted by the State to the domestic corporation. Indeed, the petition fails to show that the defendant has possession of the road by •any sort of conveyance. It may be enjoying the rights and privileges conferred upon the Georgia Southern under a quitclaim or under a lease or a mere contract of rental. The allegation that the defendant is a domestic corporation as to that part of the road which runs through the county of the plaintiff’s residence is a mere conclusion of the pleader, and is denied in the petition for removal. The case of Angier v. Railroad, 74 Ga. 634, was relied on by counsel for the defendant in error, and was the only case cited by him. • We think the facts in this case differ materially from the facts in that. In that case the allegations were, in substance, that the defendant company had purchased from a domestic railway corporation all its “rights, titles, properties, franchises, powers and privileges,” and had “assumed all its debts or obligations of every sort,” and that the two corporations had thereby become merged and consolidated as one, under the name of the foreign corporation, under its
Judgment reversed.