Harrison v. Central of Georgia Railway Co.

147 S.E. 177, 39 Ga. App. 366, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 318
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 27, 1929
Docket18086
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 147 S.E. 177 (Harrison v. Central of Georgia Railway Co.) 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
Harrison v. Central of Georgia Railway Co., 147 S.E. 177, 39 Ga. App. 366, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 318 (Ga. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Stephens, J.

Except where the size, length, weight, and character of railroad-trains when in operation, and the speed at which the trains are operated, are prohibited by law, or where, under the circumstances of a particular.case, the operation of a railroad-train is in fact negligence, the railroad company may lawfully and without being guilty of negligence operate trains of any size, length, weight, and character, and at the highest rate of speed attainable. The vibrations caused from and communicated by large, long, and ponderous trains, moving along a railroad-track at the fastest rate of speed, are necessary and legitimate incidents of the operation of these trains, and where their operation is not prohibited by law, and where, under the circumstances of the particular case, the railroad company owes no duty to any one to operate the trains in such a manner as to curtail the vibrations, it is not chargeable with negligence because of the vibrations, and is therefore not guilty of negligence in fact in failing to curtail them. Georgia Railroad & Banking Co. v. Maddox, 116 Ga. 64 (4) (42 S. E. 315); Central Georgia Power Co. v. Ham, 139 Ga. 569, 573 (77 S. E. 396); Galveston &c. Railway Co., v. DeGroff, 102 Tex. 433 (118 S. W. 134, 21 L. R. A. (N. S.) 749); Roman Catholic Church v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 125 C. C. A. 629 (207 Fed. 897, L. R. A. 1915E, 623); 6 A. L. R. 723 (note).

[367]*367Since an owner of property must use and enjoy it with due regard and consideration for the rights of others, a person owning a building situated near a railroad-track is not, in the use and the maintenance of the building, entitled to curtail the right of the railroad company to the lawful use of its own property in the operation of large, long, and ponderous trains at the highest attainable speed and with such necessary resulting vibrations therefrom as accompanies their lawful use when moving. The railroad company therefore owes no duty to a near by property owner to curtail the lawful use of its trains and reduce the vibrations arising from their lawful operation so as to prevent damage caused by such vibrations to a building and other property near the track of the railroad company over which the trains are operated.

The negligence arising as a matter of law from an act done in violation of a statute is negligence only as respects persons within the purview of the statute and whom the statute is designed to protect. The act of 1918 (G-a. L. 1918, p. 212), which supersedes §§ 2675-2677 of the Civil Code, relied on by counsel, in so far as it limits the speed of trains, applies only when they are approaching crossings, and is designed to protect people from injury to person and property only when using the crossings. The protection of the owner of a house, located near the railroad-track and at the crossing, from damage to the house and property in it, resulting from vibrations arising from the operation of the trains when approaching a crossing, is not within the purview of this statute, and the operation of a train when approaching a crossing at a speed prohibited by the statute is not negligence as respects the owner of the house in his right to protection from damage to his house and other .property from the negligent or unlawful acts of another.

An ordinance of a city which generally regulates the speed of railroad-trains within the limits of the city, and which does so without restriction as to particular situations or localities, is 'designed to protect people not only from physical injuries to themselves and property resulting from actual physical contact with railroad-trains operated through the city, but is designed to protect people from all injuries whatsoever resulting from an act of the railroad company in operating its trains in violation of this ordinance. The owner of a house situated in the city near the tracks [368]*368of the railroad company is within the protection of this ordinance as respects any damage to his house and the property in it proximately resulting from the vibrations of passing trains which are being operated at 'a rate of speed prohibited by this ordinance. Where the house is damaged by being shaken and loosened and caused to be rendered insecure and to fall to pieces, and perso’nal property in the house is damaged as the proximate result of vibrations caused by the trains running past the house at a rate of speed of forty miles per hour and more, which is in violation of an ordinance of the city prohibiting the operation, in the city of trains at a speed exceeding five miles per hour, the owner of the house has a right of action against the railroad company for the damage thus sustained.

Where a house adjacent to a railroad-track is not so firmly and securely constructed as to withstand damage from vibrations from passing trains operated at a legally permitted speed, damage to the house caused by the vibrations of passing trains which are operated at a speed prohibited by law is not proximately ' caused by the ' operation of the trains at such prohibited speed.

In a petition in a suit against a railroad company to recover for damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff arising from the falling to pieces óf his house situated near the railroad-track, and within about seventy feet of the track, caused from the vibrations from passing trains of the defendant while being operated at a rate of speed prohibited by an ordinance of the city in which the house is located, an allegation that the vibrations caused by the operation of the trains at a speed of forty miles and more per hour, and therefore in excess of the speed permitted by the ordinance, necessarily implies that the house was so constructed as not to be affected by the vibrations caused by the operation of the trains within the limitations of the speed permitted by the ordinance. A ruling that an allegation in the petition that the house was damaged by vibrations caused by the operation of the trains at a speed in excess of that permitted by the ordinance necessarily implies that the house was so constructed as not to be affected by the vibrations caused by the operation of trains within the limitations of the speed permitted by the ordinance is not in conflict with the ruling by the Supreme Court, in response to a certified question in this case propounded to it by this court, where that court held that [369]*369it would be necessary to answer a question of fact as to whether the house was so constructed as to be able to withstand and not be damaged from the trains when run at the lawful speed permitted by the ordinance, in answering a certified question as to whether there was a cause of action against the railroad company in favor of the owner of the house for damage to the house sustained as a proximate result of the operation of the defendant’s trains at a rate of speed in excess of that permitted by the ordinance. See 167 Ga. 677 (146 S. E. 317).

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36 S.E.2d 820 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1946)
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157 S.E. 242 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
147 S.E. 177, 39 Ga. App. 366, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harrison-v-central-of-georgia-railway-co-gactapp-1929.