Georgia Power Co. v. Gillespie

173 S.E. 755, 48 Ga. App. 688, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 165
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 3, 1934
Docket23220
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

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

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]*690injury 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.

The mere fact that the defendant’s street-car was operated by a single employee acting in the dual capacity of motorman and conductor would not of itself constitute negligence. See, in this connection, Di Prisco v. Wilmington City Ry. Co., 4 Pennewill (Del.), 527 Atl. 906), where it was said: “The defendant had a right to use the public highway, at the time and place of the accident, in common [691]*691with other travelers and persons who saw fit to use it. The public, as well as the defendant company, were entitled to use said highway. The electric-cars, of necessity, could use only those parts of it covered by their tracks, in as much as such cars move only upon their tracks within fixed limits. Within those lines the right of the company is superior to that of other users, and must not be unnecessarily interfered with or obstructed. In using the highway all persons are bound to the exercise of reasonable care to prevent collisions and accidents. Such care must be in proportion to the danger of the peculiar risks in each case. It is the duty of the company to provide competent and careful motormen and servants; to see that they use reasonable care in operating the cars; that the ears move at a reasonable rate of speed; that they slow up, or stop, if need be, where danger is imminent, and could, by the exercise of reasonable care, be seen or known in time to prevent accident; and that proper warning be given of the approach of the car at a crossing on the public highway. There is a like duty of exercising reasonable care on the part of the traveler. The company and the traveler are both required to use such reasonable care as the circumstances of the case demand; an increase of care on the part of both being required where there is an increase of danger. The right of each must be exercised in a reasonable and careful manner, so as not unreasonably to abridge or interfere with the right of the other. We are not prepared to lay down any absolute rule as to what precise acts of precaution are necessary to be done or left undone by persons who may have need to cross the tracks of electric railways. Nor will we attempt to specify the acts of precaution which are necessary to be done or omitted by one in the management of an electric car. Such acts necessarily must depend upon the circumstances of each particular case. The degree of care differs in different cases. A railway company is held to greater caution at street-crossings and in the more thronged streets of the densely populated portions of the city than in the less obstructed streets in the open or suburban parts. It is difficult, if not dangerous, to lay down .any inflexible rules in this regard. The general rule is that the person in the management of the car and the person approaching a car or crossing a railway-track are bound to the reasonable use of their senses of sight and hearing for the prevention of accident; and also to the exercise of all such reasonable caution as ordinarily careful [692]

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Bluebook (online)
173 S.E. 755, 48 Ga. App. 688, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/georgia-power-co-v-gillespie-gactapp-1934.