South Carolina Railroad v. Nix

68 Ga. 572
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 68 Ga. 572 (South Carolina Railroad v. Nix) 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
South Carolina Railroad v. Nix, 68 Ga. 572 (Ga. 1882).

Opinion

Jackson, Chief Justice.

1. In this case, the record showed that bills of exceptions pendente lite had been taken and allowed in the superior court during the progress of the case, but no mention was made of them in the bill of exceptions finally certified, and which brought the cause before this court by writ of error, and no assignments of error are made thereon in that final bill of exceptions.

Thereupon the plaintiff in error moved to assign error on these interlocutory bills of exception, which appeared legally certified and allowed in the transcript of the record.

The motion must be granted under section 4250 of the Code, and the practice of the court in regard thereto and in construction thereof.

The only object of a bill of exceptions is that the judge may certify that which transpires before him, and which is not otherwise of record. When that is once done it need not be repeated ; and, therefore, where he has allowed and made record of an interlocutory bill of exceptions by certifying it once, he need not repeat the certificate in another and the final bill of exceptions, and such is the express language and sense of the statute. It enacts: “ But at any stage of the cause, either party may file his exceptions to any decision, sentence, or decree of the superior court, and if the same is certified and allowed, it shall be entered of record in the cause, and should the case, at its final termination, be carried by writ of error to the supreme court by either party, error may be assigned [579]*579upon such bills of exception,” etc. What bills of exception ? Of course, those thus certified and entered of record.

If either party takes the case up by writ of error, error may be assigned on these bills of exception by the party which so excepted.

So that, although one party sued out the writ of error by the final bill of exceptions, the other may assign error on these exceptions thus found in the record. This is a right he could not exercise in the bill of exceptions of his adversary without his consent, and hence he can only assert it independently by assigning error on his own bills of exceptions certified before by the judge, and found'in the record.

Nor is there any trouble in regard to want of notice to the other side. The record of what transpires in court in a case is always notice to parties. When these interlocutory bills of exceptions are certified and allowed and made record, the other party has notice, and must prepare to meet the assignments of error thereon, which his adversary has the legal right to make on the calling of the case in this court.

2. The plaintiff is the administrator of a decedent who was killed by the defendant in the state of South Carolina, on the South Carolina railroad, about three miles from Augusta. Letters of administration were issued to the plaintiff in that state, who complied with the law as contained in section 2615 of the Code of this state, and was thereby entitled to sue, by virtue oí sections 2614 and 2615 of the Code, in the courts of this state. The defendant, the South Carolina Railroad Company, by an act of the general assembly of this state, was empowered to cross the Savannah river and run their road into Georgia at Augusta, on condition, or with the provision, that suit might be. brought against it in this state on “ all claims ” upon it.

This isa claim upon it by virtue of a statute of South [580]*580Carolina, which authorizes the administrator of a decedent to sue the road for the homicide of the husband and father for the benefit of the widow and children, and this administrator, though appointed in another state, having complied with our terms enacted in the sections of the Code above cited, has the right to sue in this state. The defendant is an artificial person created in South Carolina; yet Georgia permitted this creature of South Carolina to put foot on her soil, and the corporation thereupon accepted the privilege or franchise to do so and agreed thereby to be sued here. Richmond county is the locus — the venue— which the stranger occupies in Georgia, and where, by the agreement, this stranger may be sued. By the spirit of decisions of this court (43 Ga., 461; 49 Ib., 106; 52 Ib., 565; 59 Ib., 426; 61 Ib., 132), and that of the supreme court of the United States, in 103 U. S. R., p. 11, which latter case fully covers this point, the claim to sue, or cause of action growing alone out of the South Carolina statute, maybe brought and enforced,in this state, under the facts above narrated. Whilst, doubtless, the right to sue this company in this state was acquired by Georgia when permission was given this railway company to enter Georgia, for the benefit of her own people, as is said in 64 Ga., pp. 18-30, nevertheless, when she acquired this right to sue for her own citizens, the constitution of the United States gave it to the citizens of all the other states of the Union. Constitution of the United States; Code of Georgia, §5209. A citizen of South Carolina might, therefore, have sued here, and an administrator in that state, on complying with our law in respect to suits brought by foreign administrators, has the same right and may sue.

3. By the assignments of error on the interlocutory bills of exceptions it is insisted that the declaration is bad, because by the South Carolina statute, as construed by the courts of that state, 15 Rich., 201, it should appear that decedent left a parent, or wife, or children, and no aver[581]*581ment to that effect is' made. The court so ruled in this case, but allowed the plaintiff to amend by the allegation that the decedent left a wife. By the decision in 15th Richardson, the amendment was allowable and was properly granted. And we think also that it was properly granted in respect to setting out in the declaration the South Carolina statute.

4. When amended, the amendment relates back to the original declaration, and the date of its filing is the date from which the statute of limitations will be counted. Such is the ruling of this court in 63d Ga., 243, Rutherford, executor, vs. Hobbs, and such we presume is the law of South Carolina. The practice of thzlex fori, in respect to pleadings, amendments-and the general mode of procedure would prevail, however, even if the rule were different in the courts of the state where the injury occurred. 49 Ga., 106. But it seems that the courts of South Carolina rule that there is enough to amend by in such an original declaration as this was, and would not allow the defect to be taken advantage of in arrest of judgment, which is the test. 15 Rich., 201 supra.

We see no error, therefore, in the assignments of error made here on the interlocutory bills of exceptions, which are that there was nothing to amend by, and that the statutory bar should have been applied, because over two years had elapsed from the date of the homicide to the date of filing the amendment.

The action, therefore, in our view of the law, was in court on a good, substantially good, declaration, having been amended in substance as allowed since the act of 1853-4, Code, §3479, by the laws of this state, and also by the law of South Carolina.

5. We come, then, to errors assigned on the charges and refusals to charge on the merits of the case.

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Bluebook (online)
68 Ga. 572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-carolina-railroad-v-nix-ga-1882.