Western & Atlantic Railroad v. Gray

157 S.E. 482, 172 Ga. 286, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 79
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 20, 1931
DocketNo. 7869
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 157 S.E. 482 (Western & Atlantic Railroad v. Gray) 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
Western & Atlantic Railroad v. Gray, 157 S.E. 482, 172 Ga. 286, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 79 (Ga. 1931).

Opinion

Russell, C. J.

A motion was made to dismiss the writ of error, upon the ground that it' appears from the record that the trial court adjourned prior to the filing of the motion for a new trial. Since the motion to dismiss was not made in accordance with the Civil Code of 1910, § 6250, which provides that such motion shall be made and opposing counsel notified at least twenty-four hours before the case is called for a hearing in this court, the motion must be overruled. The case was argued in this court on June 17, 1930, and no motion to dismiss was made until September 30, 1930. King v. State, 169 Ga. 15 (149 S. E. 650).

The first five special grounds of the motion for a new trial assign as error the admission in evidence, over timely objections of the defendant, of certain testimony of Mrs. Helen N. Gray, Allen Gray Jr., Mrs. M. A. Gray, W. R. Brown, and Clarence Brown, as to the use and maintenance of the railroad crossing where the husband of the plaintiff was killed. From this testimony it appeared that at one time the crossing was repaired under the supervision of a section man of the defendant companjr; and there was also testimony that the road crossing had been worked at various times for several years by the county convicts. From these circumstances it might be legitimately inferred that the road was and had been for several years a public road or a private way. In either event, under the provisions of the Civil Code of 1910, § 2673, it was a railroad crossing within the purview and meaning of the road, laws of this State. The movant objected upon the grounds that if the road was worked by the county officers and county money expended, such acts would not be binding on the county so as to create this a public road and a public-road crossing by prescription, unless the road was registered in the road register book; that such evidence could only be admissible for the purpose of showing the creation of this road and crossing as a public road either by dedication or prescription; that to constitute this a public-road crossing by dedication would require an act of the General Assembly to give a right of way across [297]*297the right of way of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, the property of the State of Georgia; and that the crossing could not be established as a public-road crossing by prescription, because prescription can not run against the State. Under the provisions of the Civil Code of 1910, § 1289, “All the public-road laws and penal laws touching the railroads of this State, whether to obligate or protect, apply to the State road, unless specially excepted, or some other provision is prescribed in lieu of some one or more thereof.” That section has been embodied in every Code of this State from the time of its adoption as § 890 of the Code of 1861. The preceding section, which was § 889 of the first Code, is as follows: “The State occupies the same relation to said road, as owner, that any company or incorporation does to its railroad, and the obligations of the State to the public concerning said road, and of the public to said road, are the same as govern the other railroads of this State, so far as is consistent with the sovereign attributes of this State, and the laws of force for its conduct.” So it is not necessary, as contended by counsel for plaintiff in error, that a special act granting a right of way shall be passed by the General Assembly in any instance for the grant of a right of way for either a public road or a private way across the right of way of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Section 2673 declares: “All railroad companies shall keep in good order, at their expense, the public roads or private ways established pursuant to law, where crossed by their several roads, and build suitable bridges and make proper excavations or embankments, according to the spirit of the road laws.” Act of 1838, Cobb, 95. In Central Railroad Co. v. Robertson, 95 Ga. 430 (22 S. E. 551), the alleged injury was inflicted at a crossing “put there to accommodate the settlement.” Chief Justice Simmons, in delivering the opinion of the court, said: “In view of these facts, it does not matter whether the crossing was one which the defendant was required by statute to keep in repair or not. Where a railroad company builds a crossing over its road and undertakes to keep it in repair for the accommodation of the public, this is equivalent to an invitation to the public to use the same; and if a person using the crossing sustains injury from defects negligently permitted to exist or remain in the crossing, the company will be liable in damages, independently of any statutory provision on the subject. The principle which governs .in such cases has been stated thus: [298]*298'When the owner or occupier of land, by invitation express or implied, induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, he is liable in damages to such persons for injuries occasioned by the unsafe condition of the land or its approaches, and under such an express or implied invitation he must exercise ordinary care and prudence to render the premises reasonably safe for the visit/ Atlanta Cottonseed Oil Mills v. Coffey, 80 Ga. 145 [4 S. E. 759, 12 Am. St. R. 244]. 'The gist of the liability consists in the fact that the person injured did not act merely for his own convenience and pleasure, and from motives to which no act or sign of the owner or occupant contributed, but that he entered the premises because he was led to believe that they were intended to be used by visitors or passengers, and that such use was not only acquiesced in by the owner or person in possession and control of the premises, but that it was in accordance with the intention and design with which the way or place was adapted and prepared or allowed to be so used. The true distinction is this: A mere passive acquiescence by an owner or occupier in a certain use of his land by others involves no liability; but if he directly or by implication induces persons to enter on and pass over his premises, he thereby assumes an obligation that they are in a safe condition, suitable for such use, and for a breach of this obligation he is liable in damages to a person injured thereby/ Sweeny v. Old Colony and Newport Railroad Company, 10 Allen (Mass.), 373 [87 Am. D. 644].” So it was not necessary to offer further evidence as to the establishment of this crossing where the accident occurred, and it was immaterial as to whether the crossing was part of a public road or of a private way. Likewise it is immaterial what was the’ exact method employed in the original establishment of the crossing. The rule that no prescription runs against the State has no application. Civil Code of 1910, §§ 1288-1289.

In the sixth ground of the motion for a new trial the movant complains that it was error for the court to charge the jury in the language of § 2673, which we have heretofore quoted. This instruction was applicable to the evidence, without regard to the method in which the crossing originated; and under the ruling in Central Railroad Co. v. Robertson, supra, even if it had not been established in any of the ways prescribed by law but the circum[299]*299stances of its maintenance were such as to imply an invitation for passengers to use the crossing as a means of travel, the evidence of the witnesses Cunninghani and Harris at least established the fact that this crossing crossed the railroad track, and had long been used as a matter -of public and private accommodation.

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Bluebook (online)
157 S.E. 482, 172 Ga. 286, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-atlantic-railroad-v-gray-ga-1931.