Case Name: Ham v. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1896-02-07
Citations: 97 Ga. 411
Docket Number: 
Parties: Ham v. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 97
Pages: 411–415

Head Matter:
Ham v. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company.
February 7, 1896.
Action for damages. Before Judge Clark. Rockdale superior court. April term, 1895.
Randall Ham sued the railroad company, and was non-suited. Upon the trial lie testified: I got on the cars, paid tlie conductor my'fare, sat down on a seat, and told him I wanted to get off up there at Hamilton’s crossing. He turned around and said, “Go to the other car and tell Dick Jackson to let you off there.” He went on through the car, and I went on in the car to tell Dick, and while I was telling Dick the train-hand came in, and I turned and came right on behind him back to my car; and as I went into the door he slammed the door right back on the forefinger of the left hand, and the end of it was cut off by the door slamming against it. This was about half a mile from Conyers, on a train of defendant. When I went in and sat down and paid my fare, I was in the colored people’s car. The porter was in the baggage-car in front. I was going into the car, and in walking across the platform, the train was running, and I readied out my hand to catdi the door, and it being slammed back so hard I couldn’t stop the door before it came back against my hand and caught it. I just reached out my hand to catch hold of the door to go in. This was the accommodation train, and they generally let us off at the crossing all along up there; they let us off wherever we told them at the crossing. Dick Jackson was in the baggage-car when the conductor told me to go and tell him to let me off. The baggage-car was the car between the car in which I had been seated and the engine, and the half of it next the engine was used as a smoking-car and the other part for baggage. I think Heard Thompson was the porter’s name. He went across the platform into the second class car ahead of me. I don’t know whether he knew I was coming behind him or not. He didn’t look back after it was done. I did not tell Mr. Mercer George, just after my finger was hurt, that he had slammed the door on my hand. I didn’t tell him anything, I didn’t see him there. I did see him on the train before my finger was hurt; he passed through the car, but I don’t remember now where it was; he passed through the car I ivas in, the second class car, I think he was going back to the first class car. It was the front door of the second class car that mashed my finger. I was on the platform and was going in the car, and in stepping across I just reached out for the door and it caught my hand. I reached out for the door, not the doorpost. It was the edge of the door where the knob is that mashed my finger. The gentleman in front of me slammed the door as I was reaching for it, and it caught my hand. I didn’t put my hand up on the side of the door-facing. I reached for the door to walk in, of course, it was done so quick. I was reaching for the door, of course, to keep it open so that I could walk in. The door was coming harder than I thought it was. I didn’t stop on the platform, and I came from the baggage-car, where I had been to deliver the message, to the second class car as I was going back to my seat. I was right behind the man as I was returning. I suppose I tried to stop the door before it could shut. I was reaching at the knob, but the train was running and it threw me off my balance, and I guess that was why I missed it. I noticed that the door was shutting as I was going in, and in reaching to catch it my finger got caught. It was a train-hand who was in front of me. I think it was Mr. Heard Thompson. I aimed to catch hold of the knob of the door, but the train was running, and it just threw me off my balance and I missed it. I did state that in catching the door, somehow or other my hand got caught, but it was the running of the train that caused it. Of course, I am not sure how my hand got caught, but my missing the knob was why my hand got caught, and the reason why I missed the knob was the running of the train that threw me off my balance.

Opinion:
Simmons, C. J.
Under the facts in evidence it does not appear that tbe defendant was guilty of any act, whether negligent or otherwise, which could be fairly treated as the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury; and the judgment of nonsuit was therefore correct. ' Judgment affk'med.
One Booker testified: Plaintiff told the conductor he wanted to get off at a certain crossing, and the conductor told him to go and tell the porter to put him off thére. He got up and went into the baggage-car to tell the porter, and when he came back he stopped on the gangway and was telling him, and some one came in, I think it was the train-hand — the baggage-master I called him, the white fellow— he Avas talking to the colored fellow, and he shoved the door to and caught his finger and I seed him coming in holding his hand. I didn't notice particularly after he went out to tell the porter until I heard about his finger being cut off, because he came in as soon as his finger was cut. I didn't see who it was that slammed the door, but I seen the porter come in, and then he came in right behind this Avhite felloAV, the baggage-master, and said his finger Avas hurt. The Avhite fellow was Mr. Thompson, the porter on the accommodation train now. Plaintiff stopped out on the gangway before he came in with his finger hurt. I saAV him stop. Pie didn't stop there very long, but it was more than a minute, two or three minutes. I don't know what he was doing out there; he was talking to Dick, a colored porter. Some people passed through the car at the time. I couldn't tell how long plaintiff stayed there on the platform, but he didn't come straight back from the baggage-car to the second class car. I didn't see Dick on the platform when plaintiff went into the baggage-car. Mr. George passed through the train just a little before this thing happened, going back from the baggage-car, and then the white porter came through after him, and then plaintiff came in with his finger cut. — One Hillman testified: The conductor told plaintiff to go in and tell the train-hand to put him off at Hamilton's crossing, and plaintiff went on into the baggage-car, and as he was coming back another white man came on back ahead of him and he passed right by him and he was standing on the platform, and he put his hand on the car door — the back part of the door, to steady himself, and the train was running and he slammed the door, he shut the door behind him, and he caught' it back there where the hinges of the door is and cut his finger off. The first thing I knew of plaintiff having his finger cut was when I seen him frown when the door slammed. I saw him frown through the glass door, and I knowed something was the matter. He was standing out on the platform fixing to come in. He was there by himself. I saw him go in the first car and he came out, and a man passed him as he was coming out of the first car; this man passed him at the baggage door, the back door in the baggage-car. Plaintiff was coming on, and he stopped at the second platform, and I reckon he was sort of expecting to get off; I thought he was; he made a kind of a halt, and the train-hand passed by him coming on into the second ear, and he put his hand up to kind of steady himself back, I thought, and he slammed the door back against it. I saw him put his hand on the side of the doorpost; he didn't catch hold of the door. He was standing on the platform, and the train was running, and he just put his hand sort of on the doorpost to steady himself, and this finger got caught in the back part of the door, right there where the hinges are. I was looking at him, and I am sure of that; his finger didn't get mashed in the front part of the door. ' He hadn't been standing on the platform very long, because he had just returned from the first car. I thought he was fixing to get off, but he had to come back in the second car; he was on his way back in the second car. It was the train-hand that the conductor told him to go and tell to let him off. I don't know who the train-hand was. I reckon Dick Jackson, a colored fellow, was the train-hand. It was the white man who came in ahead of him and slammed the door. I don't know who he is, but he runs on the accommodation train.
George W. Gleaton, for plaintiff. J. B. & Bryan Gumming and A. G. McGalla, for defendant.