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Georgia Southwestern and Gulf Railroad Company et al. v. Georgia-Alabama Power Company et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia1921-10-01No. No. 2354
152 Ga. 172

Summary

Holding. The judgment refusing to grant an injunction was reversed because the trial court erroneously held as a matter of law that no non-mandatory injunction could be granted, when the pleadings and admissions actually supported issuing a restraining order limiting the water overflow to permit the railroad to make necessary repairs to its bridge.

A railroad company sought damages and an injunction against a power company to prevent a nuisance caused by a dam with floodgates that created water overflow beneath the railroad's bridge, threatening the bridge's structural integrity. The trial judge refused to grant a temporary injunction solely on the ground that the requested relief would be mandatory in nature and therefore impermissible. The appellate court considered the case based on the pleadings and admissions since the evidence from the hearing was not material to the specific legal issue raised.

The court held that an order restraining the power company from maintaining excessive water overflow—even if such compliance might require periodic opening of floodgates to allow repairs—does not constitute a mandatory injunction but rather a restraining order against a continuing condition. Because the pleadings and admissions supported granting such an injunction, the trial court erred as a matter of law in categorically rejecting it on mandatory-injunction grounds alone without considering the merits of the plaintiff's request for relief.

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

Key issues

  • Whether an order restraining continued water overflow constitutes a mandatory injunction
  • Standards for granting temporary injunctions in nuisance cases involving property damage
  • Effect of admissions in pleadings on appellate review when trial evidence is not material to the legal question raised

Procedural posture

The defendant in error moved to dismiss a bill of exceptions challenging the trial court's refusal to grant a temporary injunction at an interlocutory hearing on the ground that the brief of evidence was not brought to the appellate court.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Atkihson, J.

1. In a suit for damages and to enjoin a continuing nuisance, where the defendant’s answer raised several issues of fact on which evidence was introduced at an interlocutory hearing, a bill of exceptions assigning error on the judgment refusing to enjoin tern porarily the alleged nuisance, in which it is stated that the judgment was based on the sole ground that “ the injunction prayed for would be mandatory in its nature, and no injunction can be granted plaintiff which is not mandatory,” and that as to all other matters he held with the plaintiff, and the bill of exceptions states that “ no evidence was introduced by either side as to what acts defendants would have to perform if the injunction were granted,” and that “none of the evidence introduced before said judge is material to elucidate the error complained of in this bill of exceptions,” the bill of exceptions will not be dismissed, on motion of the defendant in error, on the ground that the brief of the evidence submitted at the interlocutory hearing was not brought to the Supreme Court. Civil Code, § 6140; Lamar v. Gardner, 113 Ga. 781 (39 S. E. 498). In such case the allegations in the petition and admissions in the answer may be considered as a basis for the judge’s decision, and the question as to the correctness of the judge’s ruling that the injunction prayed for would be mandatory will be decided on the basis of the pleadings.

2. Where a power company maintains a dam equipped with floodgates-across a stream, which causes water to overflow and pond under a bridge of a railroad company further up the stream, continuance of which will injure the supporting piers of the bridge and render it-unsafe, and the depth of the water is such as to render impossible the making of repairs or the renewal of the piers, an order restraining the power company from continuously maintaining the overflow under the railroad bridge so high as to prevent the railroad company from making reasonable and necessary repairs to the piers would not amount to a mandatory injunction, although in order to obey such restraining order it might be necessary for the power company to open the floodgates in the dam at intervals for the purpose of enabling the railroad company to make reasonable and necessary repairs to the bridge. Goodrich v. Georgia Railroad Co., 115 Ga. 340 (41 S. E. 659); Macon, Dublin & Savannah R. Co. v. Graham, 117 Ga. 555 (43 S. E. 1000); Mackenzie v. Minis, 132 Ga. 323 (63 S. E. 900, 23 L. R. A. 1003, 16 Ann. Cas. 723); Oostanaula Mining Co. v. Miller, 145 Ga. 90 (88 S. E. 562); Sweetman v. Owens, 147 Ga. 436 (94 S. E. 542). Under the admissions in the pleadings, the judge would have been authorized to grant an injunction of the nature stated in this note; and it was erroneous to hold as a matter of law that an injunction that was not mandatory could not be granted, and on such basis alone to refuse any injunction.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur, except Hill, ./., absent, and.

dissent opinion

Gilbert and George, JJ.,

dissenting. This was a suit for injunction. The answer of the defendant did not admit facts which would have authorized the grant of an interlocutory injunction. The interlocutory injunction was denied, and the judge in his order based his refusal of the injunction upon the ground that the injunction sought was mandatory. The exception is to the refusal to grant the interlocutory injunction. The error assigned depends upon a consideration of the evidence introduced upon the hearing; and since no attempt has been made to bring the evidence to this court, it results that the judgment should be affirmed. If the. evidence had been brought to this court, and if upon a consideration of the evidence it appeared that the plaintiff was entitled to the injunction either as a matter of law, or in the discretion of the court, it would follow, under the decision in Bead v. Bridges, 72 G-a. .30, and other like cases, that the judgment refusing the injunction should be reversed. In the absence of any brief of evidence this court is unable to say that an injunction would have been authorized in any event; and therefore the question as to whether the relief prayed was mandatory in character is necessarily an abstract question which may never arise in the case/ and neither party should be concluded upon that question in the present st^te of the record.

No. 2354.

October 1, 1921.

Petition for injunction. Before Judge Wilson. Dougherty superior court. December 2, 1920.

W. II. Beckham, B. J. Bacon, B. II. Ferrell, and Pope & Ben-net, for plaintiff.

Bobert G. & Philip PL. Alston and Milner & Farkas, for defendants.