Case ID: ga_66/html/0252-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Hawkins, Justice.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The Southwestern Railroad vs. Singleton.
    1. A railroad company in this state providing sufficient trains and cars to accommodate all the traveling public over its line, has the legal right to run special trains over its road for the purpose of carrying provisions and paying its employes, and to prohibit any person from traveling on such trains, and if plaintiff entered a car attached to the same, knowing its character, without the consent of the corporation or its agent, he becomes a trespasser.
    2. If injury is sustained by such person whilst so wrongfully upon such special train, the fact of being on such train will be an element in determining his prudence and want of care, and the liability of the corporation.
    3. If one enters a pay-train for the purpose of riding thereon, and by the rules and regulations of the company passengers were not allowed to ride on such trains, it would be his duty to leave the train as soon as he prudently could, when notified of such rule.
    4. If one leaps from a train of cars moving at the rate of fifteen miles per hour, on the advice or concurrence of the conductor, his right to recover would involve the question whether he prudently used the only means provided by the company for him to get off that the course of the company permitted him to use, and also his .recklessness and want of ordinary care ; for if by the use of ordinary care he could have avoided the injury, the company would not be liable.
    5. Where the damage alleged was the breaking of the leg of the plain-tiff resulting in permanent injury, and the plaintiff being twenty-one years of age, realizing from $200.00 to $300.00 for four months, and being deprived thereafter of employment, a verdict for $14,833.00 was excessive.
   Hawkins, Justice.