Summary of Central of Georgia Ry. v. Price

Facts: P was a passenger on the D’s train; through the conductors negligence she was not let off at her stop but was instead carried to another town; when the train arrived there, she got a hotel room and planned to take the morning train back; at the hotel the P was given a room with a kerosene lamp which she left burning after she had gone to bed; during the night the lamp exploded setting fire; she burned her hand in an attempt to put out the fire; she sued the railway for her injures

History: T.C. gave a verdict for and awarded damages; D appealed to Georgia Sup. Ct.

Issue: Whether the P’s injuries were the natural and probable consequences of the D’s conductors’ negligence

Holding: No; Reversed, FOR D

Rationale:  The injury was occasioned by the negligence of the proprietor of the hot or his servant in giving her a defect lamp.  The negligence of the company in passing her station was therefore not the natural and proximate cause of her injury.  There was the interposition of a separate, independent agency, the hotel, that the railway company neither had nor exercise control over.  The injures to the P were not the natural and proximate consequences of carrying her beyond her station.