Case Name: Albany & Northern Railway Company v. Wheeler
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1908-01-15
Citations: 3 Ga. App. 414
Docket Number: 800
Parties: Albany & Northern Railway Company v. Wheeler.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 414–414

Head Matter:
800.
Albany & Northern Railway Company v. Wheeler.
Action for damages, from city court of Cordele — Judge Stro2ier. September 27, 1907.
Argued December 18, 1907.
Decided January 15, 1908.
Lane, Maynard & Hooper, W. II: McKenzie, for plaintiff in error.
Crum & Jones, contra.

Opinion:
Powell, J.
A railroad company is bound to use only ordinary care and diligence to prevent the communication of sparks from its locomotives. An instruction which is fairly susceptible to the criticism that it tended to mislead the jury into believing that the railway company was required to have its locomotives equipped with a spark-arrester "of the latest approved pattern in general use" is erroneous. In the case at bar, the state of the pleadings and the ehai'ge, taken as a whole, do not, as they did in the case of Alabama Midland Ry. Co. v. Guilford, 119 Ga. 526 (46 S. E. 655), render the error harmless. See Atlanta & Birmingham Air-Line Railway v. McManus, 1 Ga. App. 303 (5 a), 307 (58 S. E. 258), and cases therein cited.
Judgment reversed.