Southern Railway Co. v. Edmundson
Southern Railway Co. v. Edmundson
Opinion of the Court
(After stating the facts.) The plaintiff’s suit was based upon the negligence of the defendant’s agents. It was alleged, first, that the “agents, servants, and employees” of the defendant had misappropriated her baggage to their own use. It was further alleged that the defendant was guilty of a breach of duty in failing and refusing to deliver the valise and contents to the petitioner. Counsel for plaintiff in error insist that these two allegations should be construed together, and that in effect the petition alleged the liability of the defendant was because of the fraudulent misappropriation of the baggage by the defendant’s agents and employees, and that the evidence wholly failed to sustain this charge. We can not agree with the counsel in their construction of the plaintiff’s petition. The suit was for the failure to deliver the baggage. This was alleged to have been as the result of defendant’s negligence. The further allegation that the baggage had been misappropriated by the defendant’s employees was a statement of an additional reason why the defendant failed to deliver. Construing the petition, therefore, as a suit for failure to deliver baggage, the evidence authorized the plaintiff to recover its proved value. While under the facts the defendant most probably was not liable as a carrier, because of the lapse of time after the arrival of the baggage before the demand upon the agent, it certainly was liable to the plaintiff as a warehouseman. Ga. R. Co. v. Thompson, 86 Ga. 327. The defendant’s possession of the baggage and the plaintiff’s demand
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.