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ATLANTA & WEST POINT RAILROAD CO. v. HUDSON

Supreme Court of Georgia1905-05-15
123 Ga. 108

Summary

Holding. The judgment was reversed because the trial court erred by instructing the jury as to specific acts constituting negligence rather than explaining the standard of ordinary care and allowing the jury to determine whether that standard was breached, and by imposing a duty to use all available means rather than to exercise ordinary care.

A railroad company was sued for negligence arising from cattle on its tracks. The trial judge instructed the jury by specifying particular acts the railroad's employees were required to perform to exercise ordinary care, such as maintaining a lookout for cattle and stopping the train when cattle appeared on or near the tracks. The court held this instruction was improper because trial judges may not tell a jury which specific acts do or do not constitute negligence. While appellate courts may discuss facts and use argumentative language when explaining their decisions, trial judges are prohibited by law from offering such opinions to a jury. Instead, a trial judge should explain the legal standard of ordinary care and allow the jury to determine from the evidence whether the defendant failed to exercise that standard.

The court also found error in another instruction that asked whether the railroad company used "all the means at its command" to prevent injury to cattle. This standard imposed too high a burden, exceeding the ordinary care that the law requires.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a trial judge may instruct a jury on what specific acts constitute negligence
  • The proper standard of care owed by railroad companies toward livestock on their tracks
  • The distinction between appellate discussion of facts and instructions a trial judge may give to a jury

Procedural posture

A negligence action against a railroad company proceeded to trial, after which the railroad appealed on grounds that the trial judge's instructions to the jury were erroneous.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Lumpkin, J.

(After stating the facts.) 1, 2. Several charges of the judge were alleged as error on the ground that they undertook to instruct the jury what acts ordinary care required the employees of the company to do. In one instance he charged as follows: “You will look to all these questions under the evidence in this case, to determine the truth of the same for yourselves ; for the law imposes the duty on the railroad company to maintain a lookout to discover cattle on its track, to stop its train as soon as cattle appear upon its track, or in the act of approaching it, or so near to the same that a slight change of position by them would result in their destruction or injury.” This was error. "In the trial of an action in a court of this State, for a negligent tort, it is error for the court to tell the jury what facts do or do not constitute negligence, unless there is a statute or valid municipal ordinance which in terms or in effect declares the act referred to to be negligence.” Savannah Ry. Co. v. Evans, 115 Ga. 315, 316.

That the Supreme Court may employ certain language in discussing a case, especially in regard to the facts under consideration, does not necessarily render such language proper for use by the judge of a trial court in charging a jury. A Justice of the Supreme Court, in giving reasons for a judgment rendered, often uses argumentative language which would be wholly inappropriate for use in a charge by a judge of a trial court. There is no prohibition of law against an expression of opinion on the facts of the case by the Supreme Court. There is a direct prohibition as to an expression of such an opinion by a trial judge in his charge. Civil Code, § 4334. The. presiding judge gave to the jury, as propositions of law, substantially certain statements which were made in opinions of this court in discussing the facts of cases then before it. East Tenn. Railway Co. v. Burney, 85 Ga. 636; Central of Ga. Ry. Co. v. Ross, 107 Ga. 75; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Williams, 120 Ga. 1046, 1047. What was said in those decisions was in connection with the question of whether the verdicts were sustained by the evidence, and whether there was in fact evidence of negligence. The difference between such discussions aud legal propositions suitable for a charge is obvious. The trial judge should not tell the jury what acts would constitute negligence, and what would not, but should instruct them as to the proper measure of diligence, and leave them to determine, in view of all the evidence bearing on the subject of the time, place, circumstances, and happenings, whether there was or was not a want of due care. Central of Ga. Ry. Co. v. McKenney, 118 Ga. 535; Calvin v. State, 118 Ga. 73; Savannah, F. & W. Ry. Co. v. Evans; 115 Ga. 315, 316, supra. There is no. conflict between this ruling and that in Western & Atlantic R. Co. v. Burnham, 123 Ga. 28. There is a wide difference between charging as to a duty imposed by law upon a carrier of passengers, and telling the jury that it was the duty of the railroad company to do certain specified acts to avoid injury to cattle along the road.

3. The measure of duty required of the employees of a railroad company in respect to stock along the line of its road is ordinary care. A charge which submitted to the jury to determine whether the defendant company “did use all the means at its command ” declared too stringent a rule, and was erroneous. See cases cited in Hopkins on Personal Injuries, § 59 ; Florida Central and Peninsular R. Co. v. Lucas, 110 Ga. 121, 123.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur, except Candler, J., absent.