Rome Railway & Light Co. v. McCartha

138 S.E. 359, 36 Ga. App. 805, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 328
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMay 12, 1927
Docket17615
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 138 S.E. 359 (Rome Railway & Light Co. v. McCartha) 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
Rome Railway & Light Co. v. McCartha, 138 S.E. 359, 36 Ga. App. 805, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 328 (Ga. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

Bell, J.

The plaintiffs as partners or joint owners sued the street-railway company for damages to the plaintiffs’ automobile, resulting from its collision with the defendant’s street-car. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs for $350, the full amount of the alleged damage, and the defendant excepted to the overruling of its motion for a new trial. The question for determination is whether under the evidence the verdict was authorized. The contention is that the evidence discloses as a matter of law that the driver of the automobile was guilty of negligence equal to or exceeding that of the defendant, and could have avoided the collision by ordinary care.

The theory of the plaintiffs’ case was that on an exceedingly dark and foggy morning about eight o’clock the defendant’s agent so negligently operated its street-car as to cause the injury complained of; that the car was being operated at the alleged danger[806]*806ous speed of fifteen or twenty miles per hour, without lights, and without the sounding of any bell or gong or other warning of its approach, notwithstanding the fog was such that a street-car without lights could not be seen at a greater distance than ten or twelve feet. Mr. McCartha, one of the plaintiffs, testified that he was riding in the automobile on the occasion in question, and that it was being driven three or four feet from the outside track of the car-line, and was proceeding towards the city, of Kome at the rate of about six miles per hour, just behind a large express truck. His testimony was in part as follows: “We were on the right-hand side of the street-car track. We were about three or four feet from the street-car track, and this truck was in front of us, and all at once this truck turned off as quick as it could turn. I judge the truck was about two feet from the street-car track, and all at once it turned off quickly about ten feet in front of our coupé. The side of the street-car, when it is being run, extends out and over the rails about two feet, I judge. When the Southeastern Express Company’s truck pulled to the right and from out in front of us and off the track, the express truck at that time was not more than two or three feet from me at the time the truck stopped. When it pulled off the track in front of me and before, I knew nothing about a street-car coming, meeting me. I couldn’t tell because of the heavy fog, couldn’t see it; and then the truck in front of me obstructed my view also. Just as soon as the truck pulled off to the right there in front of me the street-car ran right into our car. The left front end of the streetcar struck the left side of our automobile. It tore it all to pieces. The fog was about as heavy as I have ever seen. We were coming along slowly, six to eight miles per hour, and this truck was eight or ten feet in front of us, and we could just see the express company’s truck, and we could not see beyond it, and we could not see the street-car. It was dark just like night. The electric lights were not on the street. I say that there were no electric lights because I did not see them. I heard no ringing of a bell, sounding of the gong, or anything to give any notice of the car’s approach. The first I knew of the approach of the street-car was when it hit us. The street-car must have been going fifteen or eighteen miles per hour, because we were practically stopped at the time we were hit. As the express truck turned off my negro [807]*807turned in just the least bit, and then the street-car hit it. There was nothing that my driver could have done that he did not do before the street-car hit him.” There was other testimony by business men of Eome to the effect that this was the heaviest fog in the history of Eome.

Nathaniel Guidehigh, the plaintiff’s employee who was driving the automobile, testified:- “It was so foggy I couldn’t see, never saw a fog any heavier than that. I couldn’t hardly see an automobile or man or street-ear in front of me that didn’t have a light on it. The street-car hit me down there as I was coming back to Eome that morning in this coupé on Second Avenue. I was driving about a foot or foot and a half from the rail of the track before it hit me. At the time it hit me I was driving that close to it. My *coupé was hit on the left-hand side. The left front end of the street-ear hit me. . . The express wagon was in front of me just before the street-car hit me. As the street-car was approaching it had no lights at all on it. My automobile had lights on it at the time. The motorman on the street-car did not ring a bell or sound the gong or anything to give me notice of the approach. I was driving about six miles an hour at the time I was hit. I would say the street-ear was running something like twenty miles an hour when it hit me. . . The first thing I knew of the street car coming was when it hit me. I couldn’t see it because it had no lights on it and there was such a fog I could not see it. . . There was no time between when I first saw the street-car, after the truck in front of me had moved out of the way, until it hit my automobile. . . I would have missed if I had known the street-car was coming. I didn’t know it was coming on the street. I didn’t know what time it was going to run. I think I got in behind that express truck over there at the bridge and followed it aE the way from the bridge over the Oostanaula river right along. It was right in front, and it was foggy.”

The evidence introduced by the defendant was in some particulars contrary to the above, but that fact is, of course, immaterial in this court, since the jury were the final arbiters of the contradictions in the testimony. Taking into consideration the weather conditions and all the attendant circumstances, this court is unable to say, as a matter of law, that the finding in the plaintiff’s favor was contrary to law. The jury were fully, authorized to find that [808]*808because of tbe heavy fog and the lack of lights or other warning, neither the driver nor Mr. McCartha was negligent in failing to apprehend the approach of the street-car. This is especially true since it is the duty of the motorman in running a street-railway car through a public street to notice the presence of travelers thereon, and “at all times to be watchful to see that the way is clear; and where he has reason to apprehend danger or should in the exercise of ordinary care become cognizant of danger, he should regulate the speed of his car so that it could be quickly stopped should the occasion require it.” Perry v. Macon Street R. Co., 101 Ga. 400, 410 (29 S. E. 304). The defendant had no exclusive right to use the streets, and it was certainly not wrongful that the automobile should be driven along the defendant’s tracks so long as the occupants of the automobile did not know and should not have known of the approach of the street-car. Collins v. Augusta-Aiken R. Corp., 13 Ga. App. 124 (78 S. E. 944); Dabbs v. Rome Ry. & Light Co., 8 Ga. App. 350 (69 S. E. 38). And it seems that the jury might very properly have inferred that in view of the fog and darkness the occupants of the automobile could have assumed that if a street-car should be approaching, its presence would be made known by a headlight or by some signal, by gong or the like, in ample time for travelers to clear the way. Furthermore, the view was obstructed by the large truck which was being driven immediately in front of the automobile. In Savannah Electric Co. v. Nance, 31 Ga. App. 632 (121 S. E.

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Related

Perry v. Lyons
183 S.E.2d 467 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1971)
Newberry v. City of Macon
144 S.E. 347 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1928)

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Bluebook (online)
138 S.E. 359, 36 Ga. App. 805, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rome-railway-light-co-v-mccartha-gactapp-1927.