Macon & Western Railroad v. Davis

13 Ga. 68
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 15, 1853
DocketNo. 11
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 13 Ga. 68 (Macon & Western Railroad v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Macon & Western Railroad v. Davis, 13 Ga. 68 (Ga. 1853).

Opinion

By the Court.

Nisbet, J.

delivering the opinion.

The proceedings out of which spring the questions for review in this record, were taken under the Acts of 1847 and 1850. A copy of the Act of 1850, and so much of the Act of 1847, as applies to the case, are given in the Reporter’s brief. See Cobb’s N. D. 397, 398, 399.

It will be seen by reference to the Act of 1847, that the Legislature has provided therein a summary mode of procedure, and an extraordinary tribunal, clothed with special jurisdiction ; for the purpose, in the first instance, of ascertaining the damage done to live stock or other property, by the running of the ears and locomotives of the Railroad Companies of this State. For the better ascertainment and settlement of such damages, it enacts that it shall be the duty of each of said Companies to appoint an agent or agents, to attend at the depot of the Company on each Justices’ Court day, to hear any complaint for damages done to live stock or other property by the running of the cars and locomotives; that the agent shall put a notice in writing at the district Court house door of his attendance and readiness to hear such complaint, by or before mid-day of the day on which the Justices’ Court of the district is held; that the Company shall notify the Magistrate of the district, and the Clerk of the Superior Court of the County of the appointment of their agent, which notice the Clerk is required to record; that the engineer of the Company shall render to the agent at each depot, an account of all the stock or other property damaged between that and the last depot, and that the agent shall enter in a book kept for that purpose the account so rendered, which shall be at all times open to the inspection of all persons; that the engineer shall be sworn before entering on his duties, to render a true account of the stock or other property damaged as above stated, and that [74]*74any person complaining of damage done to his stock or other property by the running of the cars or engines, shall take and subscribe an oath that he has sustained damages without any fraud or combination on his or her part, directly or indirectly, and that this affidavit shall be attached to the award before it can be read as evidence. These things being done, the Legislature seems to have supposed that the agent of the Company and the person complaining might come together at the depot of the Company, on the day of the holding of the Justices’ Court for the district in which it is situated, and then and there agree between themselves as to the fact of damage, and the amount of the compensation to be paid ; for without directing this to be done, the Act proceeds to declare, that in case of disagreement between the agent and the complainant, either as to the fact of such damage being done, or the amount of the same, they may each choose one disinterested freeholder of the district, which two shall choose a third, who after being sworn before a Judge or Justice of the Peace, truly and impartially to estimate the damages in the case submitted to them, shall estimate and assess such damages, and give their award in writing. And in the event that the agent of the Railroad does not attend and select a freeholder as before provided, the Act makes it the duty of one of the Justices of the Peace to select one freeholder, the complainant one, and these two one other, who shall assess the damage and make an award between the parties. Such are the requirements of the Act, from which it is clear that the Legislature intends, first, that the agent of the Railroad and the person claiming to have been injured, shall, if possible, agree upon the fact of the injury to or destruction of the property, and the amount of the damages, and if they do so agree, that then the agreement shall be a binding contract between the parties, and the procedure under the Statute shall there terminate; and second, that if they do not so agree, then the fact and amount of the damage, shall be submitted to arbitrators, each choosing one, and the two a third; and third, that if the agent of the Railroad does not attend for the foregoing purposes at all, then [75]*75the fact of damage and the amount of the same, shall at the instance of the person alleging the injury, still be submitted to arbitration; a Justice of the Peace choosing one arbitrator, the complainant one, and the two a third.

The proceeding in this case, originated under the third condition of things contemplated in the Statute. An award was made by arbitrators, one selected by a Justice of the Peace, one by the complainant, and the third by these two. It was against the Railroad, and upon it an appeal was taken under the Statute to the Superior Court. Upon the trial of that appeal, the administrator of Willis Boon, who was the complainant before the arbitrators, tendered in evidence the record of the proceeding before them, and their award, which were objected to upon several grounds, and admitted by the presiding Judge. The overruling of these objections is the first error which is charged upon the Court below. We consider them now, so far as they go to the regularity of the proceeding under the Act of 1847.

[1.] It makes the arbitrators a tribunal for the ascertainment and award of damages against the Railroads, for injuries to, or the destruction of live stock or other property. They are clothed with jurisdiction over that subject-matter, and over these great corporations, in which numerous citizens have a specific property interest, and in which the whole people have a very important general interest. Whilst Railroads in the hands of private corporations, belong to individuals, yet it is not a controvertible proposition, that they subserve many most valuable public uses. It is upon this. idea alone that the property of the citizen can be appropriated, even when adequate compensation is awarded for their construction. By the Act of 1847, a commission of three freeholders is empowered to render a judgment against them. It is not the less a judgment because called an award. Nor is it the less a judgment because not necessarily final. An appeal by the Act of 1850, is given to the Companies. To appeal to the Superior Court is their privilege, which they may exercise or not, ac[76]*76cording to their own. judgment of a loss or gain thereby; and if they determine that it is not their interest to appeal, then by the express enactment of the Legislature, the judgment of the arbitrators becomes final, and may be enforced by process of execution. The action of this tribunal is altogether one side of the course of the Common Law. They are authorized to give judgment without the pleadings usual in such cases by the rules of the Common Law — without notice, except by implication, to the Railroad — without the intervention of a Jury, and whether bound by the rules of evidence obligatory upon the Courts of Law or Chancery, is left undetermined. They derive their being and the forms of their existence from the Statute. They are a special Court, with a limited, specific, but potent jurisdiction; a Court which could not for one moment be upheld but for the fact, that from its judgment an appeal lies to a Jury. Being then a Court of limited jurisdiction, to it, if to any Court any where to be found in countries under the sway of the Common Law, the rule applies, that Courts of limited jurisdiction must not only act within the scope of their jurisdiction, but it must appear on the face of their proceedings, that they have so acted, or their proceedings are u coram non judice” and void. Void every where and howsoever attacked. 7 Geo. R. 362. 9 Wheat. R.

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Bluebook (online)
13 Ga. 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macon-western-railroad-v-davis-ga-1853.