Central of Georgia Railway Co. v. Swift & Co.

1. Where one of two or more joint tort-feasors has been sued for and compelled to satisfy damages arising from a jointly tortious transaction, hé can not, as a general rule, maintain an action either for contribution or indemnity over against those connected with him in the tort; but if the liability of the tort-feasor in the originalV suit arises merely from negative acts of omission on his part, such as a failure in his duty to inspect, and the proximate cause of the injury, so far as the joint tort-feasors are concerned, lay in active, positive acts of negligence on the part of the other…