Case ID: ga_118/html/0629-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Cobb, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MACK, by next friend, v. SAVANNAH AND STATESBORO RAILWAY COMPANY.
    As against a general demurrer, the petition set forth a cause of action.
    Submitted July 14, —
    Decided August 14, 1903.
    Action for damages. Before Judge Evans. Bulloch superior court. November 1, 1902.
    The petition alleged, that the plaintiff, a boy sixteen years of age, was a passenger on a passenger-train of the defendant, having gone aboard it to go to Stilson, a regular station at which all such trains stop, and at which this train should stop, and that “ when the signal whistle for the station at Stilson blew, petitioner went to the door of the coach, and, as the train drew near the station, he went out on the platform to get off the train, but the train, through the fault and negligence of the defendant, did not stop as it should have done and was in duty bound to do, but ran past the station, petitioner standing on the platform, where he had gone without fault to get off the train at the station. When the train had run about one hundred and fifty yards past the station, the agents and employees of the defendant, without giving petitioner any warning, violently and suddenly applied the brakes to the train, causing an abrupt and instant break in the speed of the train, accompanied with a terrific shaking and jolting which threw petitioner from the platform to the ground,” where he received ■physical injuries described-; that he was injured by the negligence •of the defendant, without fault or negligence on his part; and that by reason of the injuries mentioned he was damaged in a sum stated. The defendant demurred on the grounds, that the petition showed that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover; that he was unnecessarily standing in a dangerous position, where under the rules of law and of all railroad companies, passengers are prohibited from riding, and that this showed a want of ordinary care on his part. The demurrer was sustained, and the plaintiff excepted.
    
      Moore & Deal, for plaintiff.
    
      Groover & Johnston, for defendant.
   Cobb, J.

The demurrer was general. As against such a demurrer the petition set forth a cause of action. See Macon & Western Railroad Co. v. Johnson, 38 Ga. 409, 437; Augusta Southern Railroad Co. v. Snider, 118 Ga. 146; Hopk. Pers. Inj. §§ 154-155; 1 Fett. Car. § 167; Hutch. Car. § 652; 4 Ell. R. R. § 1630. Judgment reversed.

By five Justices.