Central of Georgia Ry. Co. v. Knight

57 So. 253, 3 Ala. App. 436, 1911 Ala. App. LEXIS 158
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 30, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 So. 253 (Central of Georgia Ry. Co. v. Knight) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Central of Georgia Ry. Co. v. Knight, 57 So. 253, 3 Ala. App. 436, 1911 Ala. App. LEXIS 158 (Ala. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

PELHAM, J.

The appellant, a common carrier, having a commercial and also a ticket agent at Birmingham, Ala., sold to appellee a ticket entitling her to first-class passage from Birmingham, Ala., to Norfolk, Va., transportation to be by rail from Birmingham to Savannah, Ga., over the appellant’s railroad, and from thence to destination by boat over the Merchants’ & Miners’ Transportation Company, a connecting carrier of appellant. The appellee sued for breach of the contract of carriage, alleging in the third count of the complaint, which was the only count submitted to the jury, that she purchased a ticket from the agent at Birmingham entitling her to a first-class passage over the appellant’s railroad from that point to Savannah, Ga., and that appellant undertook and agreed as part of the contract of carriage to arrange by telegraph to engage for her a stateroom on the connecting carrier’s boat or steamer at Savannah making connection with the railroad and bound for Norfolk. The case was tried on a plea of the general issue to this count of the complaint, which alleges that, by the breach of the contract, appellee was “caused to suffer a. great loss of time and money, was greatly delayed, harassed, humiliated, and annoyed, and was caused much physical inconvenience and discomfort, and great mental distress and worry.”

It appears from the evidence introduced on the trial, and is also alleged as a fact known to appellant at the time the ticket was purchased, that appellee was a bride, and that the ticket sold to her was for a pleasure journey, a bridal trip; and that she had in contemplation as a part of the enjoyment of this honeymoon excursion a steamer voyage with the groom on appellant’s regular connecting carrier from Savannah to Norfolk.. The husband of appellee testified that a few days previous to the purchase of the ticket for appellee he had informed the [439]*439commercial agent of appellant in Birmingham of the purposes of the trip, and discussed the different routes with him, and that the agent had stated that the reservation of the stateroom on the boat would be made when the ticket was purchased; that they would make the reservation by wire. This witness further testified that the commercial agent referred him to the ticket agent at the terminal station in Birmingham for a purchase of the ticket on the day it was secured, and at the time of paying for it the ticket agent stated that the stateroom accommodations would be reserved. On arrival in Savannah, appellee and her husband made inquiry of the agent of appellant and also of its connecting carrier, and ascertained that no telegram had been received and no stateroom accommodation reserved on the connecting steamer, and she was unable to secure such accommodations, although she applied to the agent of appellant and the connecting carrier for them. The appellee arrived in Savannah on or about schedule time Tuesday morning. The connecting steamer sailed that afternoon. The next steamer was not scheduled to sail before the following Saturday. After failing to get accommodations on the connecting boat, appellee took the train about 2 -or 3 o’clock that same afternoon for Norfolk, and reached there before the arrival of the boat on which she had expected to go. Appellant’s ■commercial agent at Birmingham with whom the negotiations were had with reference to the purchase of the ticket by appellee’s husband testified that the holder of such a ticket as the appellee had would be entitled to first-class passenger accommodations from Birminghim to Norfolk; that the Merchants’ & Miners’ Transportation Company was a regular connection of the Central of Georgia Railway Company, the appellant; that he did not recall having any conversation with ap[440]*440pellee’s husband about the sale of the ticket in question ; that the custom was to telegraph to Savannah and ask for stateroom accommodations, and, if they were secured, to inform the prospective passenger.

The appellant excepted to.portions of the oral charge of the court, and insists here that giving these portions of the charge constitutes error. The charge must be construed as a whole (B. R. L. & P. Co. v. King, 149 Ala. 504, 42 South. 612),- and, when so construed, we cannot assert that the portions objected to are' erroneous. That part of the charge made the ground of the first assignment of error: “If you find that they did not agree to furnish a stateroom, you will find for the defendant, unless you should find that it was impracticable for her to travel on the boat without a stateroom. If you find that she could not travel on the boat without a stateroom, then it would be a violation of their contract” — is most favorable to appellant in the light of the testimony of the appellant’s agent that the ticket held by appellee entitled her to first-class passage from Birmingham to Norfolk. That part of the ticket entitling her to passage from Savannah to Norfolk was for passage on board a steamer on which she would have to spend the entire night, and the charge substantially, when construed as a whole, left it to the jury to determine whether or not it was impracticable for the appellee to travel all night on a. boat without stateroom accommodations, when she held a ticket sold to her by appellant entitling her to first-class passenger accommodations on the boat. The testimony on behalf of appellee was to the effect that appellant had agreed and undertaken as a part of the contract of carriage to wire and reserve for her a stateroom, and, if the jury believ-. ed this evidence (and there was but slight negative testimony in conflict with it), a failure to do so would [441]*441constitute a breach of the contract, whether to travel all night on the boat without a stateroom, was or was not practicable; and we might say that first-class transportation, including all-night travel on a passenger steamer, carries with it the right to stateroom accommodations as a matter of common knowledge, fox’, based on oustoxn and usage, the passenger contracts for such ao coxxxmodations when secuxfing first-class passage.

As to the second assignment of error based on the court’s oral charge, it .is enough to say, to meet appellant’s objections urged by brief, that the court was laying down rules applicable to the evidence. There was no evidence even tending to show that appellant had sent a telegram endeavoring to reserve accommodations, as, according to appellee’s contention, it had contracted to do. The liability of appellant for failure to furnish accommodations was limited to failure “in accordance with the contract.” The complaint by a fair- and reasonable construction of its language avers a breach of the contract of carx’iage in failing to secure accoxxxmodations on appellant’s connecting carrier by wiring for a stateroom reservation on the ticket purchased from appellant. The allegations of negligent failure are merely descriptive of the breach complained of.—W. U. Tel. Co. v. Garthright, 151 Ala. 413, 44 South. 212.

We cannot subscribe to the doctrine, so' insistently urged by appellant, that appellee would be precluded from recovering more damages because this trip was made soon after her marriage, when she was on her bridal trip. The appellant did not seek to challenge these facts, which were specifically set out and averred in the complaint (with the additional averment that they were known to appellant), by motion to strike, or otherwise. Nor was any objection interposed on the [442]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 So. 253, 3 Ala. App. 436, 1911 Ala. App. LEXIS 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/central-of-georgia-ry-co-v-knight-alactapp-1911.