80 Ga. 19 | Ga. | 1888
George C. Stevens sued the Central Railroad & Banking Company for .$10,000 damages, for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by him by reason of the defendant’s negligence. His declaration alleged that, on the night of the 27th of May, 1886, he purchased from the defendant’s agent, at the tieket-ofñce atMarshallville, a ticket 'entitling him to passage over the defendant’s road; and that, while walking in the dark across the grounds of the defendant on his way to meet the train at the usual point of embarking and to take passage thereon, he unexpectedly came to an abrupt step or break in the ground which caused him to stumble, and in attempting to recover himself he stumbled upon and fell over a bank of sand, thereby sustaining injuries to his wrist and spine and other serious personal hurt. He alleged that these injuries were caused
The jury, upon the trial of the case, found in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff moved for a new trial, which was refused, and he thereupon excepted. The grounds of the motion for a new trial are, in substance, as follows :
The first, second and third grounds are the usual ones, that the verdict is contrary to law and to the evidence. The fourth ground is, that the court, after stating what the plaintiff claimed in his declaration, failed to charge the law on the given state of facts; whether plaintiff’s theory was well or ill founded in law; whether or not it was the duty of the defendant to provide at night suitable lights in and about its station grounds where passengers usually and ordinarily went, to warn them; and failed to charge as to the duty of railroad companies to provide safe and unobstructed passage about their station-grounds, used by passengers in going from the ticket-office to the usual place of boarding the cars.
The 5th ground is, that the court failed to charge, as requested by plaintiff’s counsel, “ that a railroad company is bound to keep in safe condition stations and station grounds where passengers are expressly or impliedly invited to go, and to use extraordinary care for the safety of passengers using stations and station grounds ”; and charged in lieu thereof (and so far as he charged at all on the duty of railroads to passengers), that “there are certain principles of law regulating the liability of 'railroad companies to which the court invites your attention. A railroad company is bound to extraordinary diligence on behalf of itself and its agents to protect the lives and persons of its passengers, but it is not liable to injuries of passengers after having used such diligence. Diligence is of two kinds; ordinary diligence, which is that care which evéry prudent man takes of his own property of a similar na
The 6th ground-is, “ Because the court erred in charging the juiy that ‘ If a railroad company has used all proper diligence in providing a suitable place for passengers to enter'the cars, and has given full and fair opportunity to enter-the cars at that-place, a passenger who has-declined-to enter until the last moment is entitled only to usual and ordinary diligence in keeping him from being left.’ ”
The 7th ground of the motion is, that the court did not
The 8th ground is, that the court failed to charge the jury on the subject of impeaching testimony, although Bryan’s interrogatories, sued out by the plaintiff, were introduced by the plaintiff solely to contradict and impeach the oral testimony of Bryan as a witness for the defendant.
The 9th ground is, that the court refused to rule out Bryan’s testimony, as a witness for the defendant, on the subject of the plaintiff’s exchanging photographs with a negro girl, Julia, and the conversations and engagements with her; plaintiff’s counsel having moved to rule out the same on the ground that it was irrelevant, and calculated to mislead the jury and prejudice the plaintiff in the minds of the jury.
The 10th ground is, that the court, after admitting, over objection of the plaintiff, the testimony of the witness, Bryan, as to plaintiff's exchanging photographs with’ the negro girl, Julia, and conversations and engagements with her, failed in his charge to the jury to restrict the effect of the evidence to the matter for. which he ruled it relevant, to-wit: the extent of plaintiff’s spinal injuries.
Judgment affirmed.