Northern Freight Lines, Inc. v. Southern Railway Co.
Northern Freight Lines, Inc. v. Southern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff sued the defendant railroad for damages to its tractor-trailer which occurred when the defendant’s train hit the rear of the trailer which was on the track at a railroad crossing. Tire railroad brought a cross action for damages to its locomotive. The evidence was in conflict on all questions of negligence, and the jury found a verdict for the defendant and awarded no damages on the defendant’s cross action. The defendant, as plaintiff in error in this court, argues assignments of error on the trial court’s overruling of four special grounds of its motion for new trial directed at instructions given by the trial court to the jury. Held:
1. The following charge was not error: “. . . the precise thing which every person is bound to do before going on a railroad track is that which every prudent man would do under like circumstances; and if there is a place of safety from which a prudent man would look upon the course from which oncoming trains might come, the driver of a vehicle should look upon such course from that point and so take the necessary precautions, both for himself and his vehicle.” We agree with the discussion and statement of Justice Bleckley in Richmond &c. R. Co. v. Howard, 79 Ga. 44, 51-53 (3 SE 426): “The court cannot instruct the jury what a prudent man would do, for in legal contemplation, the jury know it better than the court.” However, the above charge does not instruct the jury what a prudent man would do, but instructs that, if the jury find a prudent man would do a certain thing before crossing a railroad track, then ordinary care would require any driver crossing the track to do the same thing. See Macon R. &c. Co. v. Barnes, 121 Ga. 443, 446 (49 SE 282).
3. The plaintiff complains of a charge stating that a railroad track is a place of danger and “an ordinarily prudent person in the possession of all his faculties would not attempt to cross a railroad at any place without using at least his sense of sight, if not that of hearing, to determine whether at the time and place he was about to cross the same there was present any of those dangers which a person of ordinary intelligence would reasonably apprehend.” The charge followed language used in the opinion in Western &c. R. Co. v. Ferguson, 113 Ga. 708, 713 (39 SE 306, 54 LRA 802). It has been held reversible error in Cone v. Atlantic C. L. R. Co., 89 Ga. App. 74 (78 SE2d 836), and a number of cases have held that the trial court did not err in refusing a request to charge this language. Macon R. &c. Co. v. Barnes, 121 Ga. 443, 446, supra; Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Benton, 43 Ga. App. 495, 503 (159 SE 717). “It is not incumbent upon the court to instruct the jury that it is the duty of one who attempts or intends to cross a railroad track to use his- senses of hearing and seeing before stepping on the track.” Richmond &c. R. Co. v. Howard, 79 Ga. 44, 53, supra. The reason for these decisions is that “the court cannot instruct the jury what a prudent man would do.” Richmond &c. R. Co. v. Howard, supra. See also Atlanta &c. R. Co. v. Hudson, 123 Ga. 108, 109 (51 SE 29); Jordan v. Lee, 51 Ga. App. 99 (179 SE 739); Savannah Electric Co. v. Joseph, 25 Ga. App. 518 (103 SE 723). The charge complained of in the present case violates this rule and was reversible error.
4. The plaintiff complains of a charge stating that employees operating trains have a right to act on the presumption, in the absence of anything to the contrary, that an apparently able adult on the track will get off or take available precautions to avoid injury. In the present case, where the evidence did not
Though we have not held all of the instructions upon which error is assigned to be reversible error in the present case, we do not hold that the trial court would be required to give any of them to the jury upon request. As was observed by the court in Cone v. Atlantic C. L. R. Co., 89 Ga. App. 74, supra, and other cases, language employed by an appellate court in discussing a case may be argumentative and is not necessarily proper for use by a trial judge in charging a jury.
Judgment reversed.
070rehearing
On Defendant's Motion for Rehearing.
The defendant contends that, whatever the law may have been earlier, the enactment in 1953 of Code Ann. § 68-1661, authorizes the charge discussed in Division 3 of this opinion and makes it harmless in the present case. That statute requires that a driver who approaches a railroad crossing “shall stop within 50 feet but not less than 15 feet from the nearest rail
Rehearing denied.
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