Bazemore v. Powell

188 S.E. 282, 54 Ga. App. 444, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 624
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 29, 1936
Docket25662
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 188 S.E. 282 (Bazemore v. Powell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bazemore v. Powell, 188 S.E. 282, 54 Ga. App. 444, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 624 (Ga. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

Sutton, J.

This case was previously before this court as reported in Lewis v. Powell, 51 Ga. App. 129 (179 S. E. 865), to which reference may be made for a detailed statement of the pleadings. After this court reversed the judgment of the trial court sustaining a demurrer to the petition, a trial was had and the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff filed a motion for new trial on the general grounds and on several special grounds, which was overruled, and the plaintiff excepted.

[445]*445The first special ground is that the court erred in excluding from the consideration of the jury evidence of a witness that “on a night shortly before this injury occurred, I was driving into town in my automobile. There was no flagman; the lights were not burning. I heard no signal from either a bell or whistle, and the junk-pile to the right of the road obscured my view, and the engine was crossing the track as my automobile approached. With the greatest effort I was able to stop my automobile only within two or three feet of the engine as it passed.” As to the absence of a flagman at the crossing, the ruling of this court in Lewis v. Powell, supra, that the defendant was under no obligation to maintain one, became the law of this case. As to the proffered proof of acts of negligence in not giving a signal by the ringing of a bell or the blowing of a whistle on a former occasion, it is the general rule that in a suit for negligence, evidence of similar acts or omissions on other and different occasions is not admissible, and the proffered evidence did not show any reason for an exception to this rule. Butler v. Central of Georgia Ry. Co., 41 Ga. App. 115, 119 (5) (151 S. E. 834); Hollomon v. Hopson, 45 Ga. App. 762 (166 S. E. 45); City of Dallon v. Humphries, 139 Ga. 556 (3) (77 S. E. 790).

The second special ground relates to the exclusion of testimony of a witness that her husband narrowly escaped injury from the collision of a truck with a train at the crossing in question, at a time when he was driving a truck, but when the witness was not present. Obviously such testimony was hearsay and clearly inadmissible.

The third special ground complains of a portion of the charge of the court in which it was stated that the allegation <3f negligence as to the absence of a flagman at the crossing was out of the petition, that is, that it was not to be considered by the jury. When this court previously dealt with this on a demurrer to the petition, the petition contained the allegation that it had been the custom of the railroad to maintain a flagman at the crossing, and the ruling of the court that the defendant was not obliged to do so became the law of this case. Moreover, there was no evidence of any such custom. The ground is without merit.

The fourth ground complains of a portion of the charge of the court in which it was stated that the plaintiff could not recover [446]*446on any allegation not stated in the petition, to which was added: “So you must coniine yourselves to the allegations of negligence in the declaration, and as to those allegations of negligence — all of them — I shall later charge you when I take them up, except one, and that is this allegation of negligence with reference to the blow-post law.” While the quoted portion is not quite clearly stated, it may be said to be more unfavorable to the defendant than to the plaintiff in referring to “all of them” in connection with the allegations, because, under the law of the case as made in the previous decision of this court, the only allegation of negligence left for the consideration of the jury was whether or not the defendant was negligent in approaching the crossing. The 'blow-post law puts on the defendant the duty of erecting blow-posts, and “the engineer operating the locomotive engine of any railroad train moving over the track of said railroad shall be required, when he reaches the said blow-post, as a signal of approach to said crossing, to blow through said whistle two long and two short blasts at intervals of five seconds between each blast; said blasts to be loud and distinct. In addition thereto, after reaching the blow-post furthest removed from said crossing, and while approaching said crossing, he shall keep and maintain a constant and vigilant lookout along the track ahead of said engine, and shall otherwise exercise due care in approaching said crossing, in order to avoid doing injury to any person or property which may be on said crossing, or upon the line of said railway at any point within 50 feet of such crossing.” Code, § 94-506. The charge of the court, as contained in the record, shows that the jury was instructed as to the duty of the engineer to obey the above-named provisions of the law if on reaching the blow-post the train was making a continuous passage across the highway crossing in the present instance; but that if the engineer stopped the train at a point between the blow-post nearest the crossing and the crossing itself, the duty of blowing through the whistle as prescribed above would not apply until starting towards the crossing from the point at which he had stopped,- and from that point he would be required to blow, as indicated by the statute, in passing over the crossing and beyond to the next blow-post. In giving such charge the court inadvertently stated that the engineer would be required to blow continuous!y, whereas under the statute he is required to [447]*447blow only at intervals of five seconds; bnt such error was harmful to the defendant rather than to the plaintiff. The only allegation of negligence not adjudicated in the previous decision by this court -being that with reference to the approach of the train to the crossing, and the court not having incorrectly charged the blow-post law as against the plaintiff, this ground is without merit.

Ground 5 complains of the charge of the court that if the defendants were exercising ordinary care with respect to the matter charged as negligence in reference to observing the blow-post law, the plaintiff could not recover; it being contended that it excluded from the consideration of the jury all evidence showing negligence of the defendants in not having the engine under proper control, in not keeping and maintaining a constant and vigilant lookout ahead of the engine, in maintaining a junk-pile on its right of way, and in thus obscuring the view of the plaintiff and the driver of the automobile, of the engine as the automobile approached the crossing, in not having a flagman at the crossing, and other alleged evidence showing negligence on the part of the defendants, except as to a violation of the blow-post law. There was no evidence that the engine was not under control, and the engineer testified that he in fact had it under control. There was no evidence that the defendants did not maintain and keep a constant and vigilant lookout ahead of the engine. Nor was there any evidence that it maintained a junk-pile on its right of way. It was testified by one witness that he established and operated the junk-pile of old automobiles, and that the pile was on his property and not on that of the railroad. As shown in the preceding-part of this opinion, the previous decision by this court made it the law of the case that the railroad company was not under a duty to maintain a flagman at the crossing. It follows that there was no error in the charge of the court, and this ground is without merit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 S.E. 282, 54 Ga. App. 444, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bazemore-v-powell-gactapp-1936.