Georgia Power Co. v. Gillespie

173 S.E. 755, 48 Ga. App. 688, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 165
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided March 3, 1934·No. 23220·Published·Cited by 19 cases

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

This was an action brought in the superior court of Fulton county, Georgia, for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff, George B. Gillespie, as a result of the alleged negligence of the defendant. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant’s motion for a new trial was overruled. Certain demurrers to the plaintiff’s petition were overruled, and objections to amendments offered by the plaintiff to his petition were overruled. To these rulings the defendant excepted.

The defendant demurred separately to the allegations in paragraphs 18, 19, and 20 of the petition as amended, relating to the allegations that, under the particular facts alleged by the defendant, it constituted negligence to operate a street-car by having one man only act as both motorman and conductor. The allegations of the petition relating to the operating of what is generally known as a one-man street-car are as follows, to wit: That the place of the occurrence of the injury complained of and hereinafter described is on Peachtree street, at the east-west cross-walk between the intersection of Cain and Peachtree streets and the intersection of Harris and Peachtree streets, all being within the city limits of Atlanta of said State and County. This cross-walk is in downtown Atlanta, where the traffic is extremely crowded, and the streetcars pass by this cross-walk every three or four minutes. The'time of the injury hereinafter alleged was at the time of the crowded and rushing evening traffic for taking persons from their offices to their homes. Said cross-walk is constantly in use by the public as a place wherein Peachtree street could properly be crossed by pedestrians, and at said time of the evening was as fully in use as at the most crowded part or other time of the day. That said cross-walk was demarcated with white lines by the police department of the City of Atlanta as a place in which pedestrians should cross said street; that the police department and its members are the proper authorities for permitting persons to cross said street at said time and place, and your petitioner was permitted by the police department of the City of Atlanta to cross said street .at said time and place; that petitioner did walk across said street between two white lines about twelve feet apart, running directly across Peachtree street from the entrance of an alley twelve feet wide to the curb on the other side of Peachtree street; that the public and the pedestrians of the public had for several years prior to the time of the [690] injury herein referred to used said space between said white lines as a place to cross said street and the tracks of the defendant company ; that said place was habitually used by the public without the disapproval of the defendant company, and that the employees of the defendant company who drive its cars over its tracks at said place were aware of the custom of the public to use said space between said white lines as a proper place to cross the street and the tracks of the defendant company; that at the time of the collision the conductor-motorman of defendant’s car could have seen petitioner if he had looked, but actually did not see petitioner, because his attention to his duties as motorman was temporarily diverted in order that he might give his attention to his duties as a conductor. Among the conductor duties of said operator were the duties of assisting passengers to and from their seats, collecting fares, making change for passengers, and assorting fares and change in order to enable him to place or replace the same in his money carrier. Among his motorman duties were the duty of manipulating the controls of the car, to make it move and stop, and to keep an outlook straight ahead to see that he did not encounter persons or property with the street-car. There are times in the performance of his duties as a conductor when said operator can not and does not perform said duties as a motorman, and it was at one of these times that the motorman of defendant’s car did fail to look ahead and see petitioner. It was the performance of one or some of these duties as a motorman which temporarily diverted said operator’s attention from his duty of driving said car and keeping a lookout straight ahead. It is alleged that the defendant was negligent in that its agent was driving its car at the time of the collision while acting as both motorman and conductor; that the defendant was negligent in permitting its agent to drive its car at the time of the collision, without the assistance of a conductor; that the defendant was negligent in permitting its agent to control said car at the time of the collision in the dual capacity of motorman and conductor.

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Georgia Power Co. v. Gillespie, 173 S.E. 755, 48 Ga. App. 688, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 165 (Ga. Ct. App. 1934).

173 S.E. 755 (Georgia Power Co. v. Gillespie) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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