Case ID: ga-app_126/html/0021-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Hall, Presiding Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

46977.
    CAUDLE et al. v. WHIDDON et al.
   Hall, Presiding Judge.

In an action for damages to a water supply from a leaking underground gasoline pipeline, the defendant service station owners appeal from the grant of summary judgment to the third-party defendant, the subcontractor who installed the line.

Submitted March 1, 1972—

Decided April 3, 1972.

Young, Young & Ellerbee, 0. Wayne Ellerbee, for appellants.

Coleman, Blackburn, Kitchens & Bright, J. Converse Bright, for appellees.

The court erred in granting the summary judgment. There are issues of material fact as to, among other things, the cause of the leak; whose negligence, if any, was responsible for it; and whose duty it was to cover the pipes, regardless of who actually did it.

That the third-party defendant may not be liable to the defendant for all of the damages alleged, does not preclude the use of third-party practice. Code Ann. §81A-114 specifically provides for partial liability. Apportioning the damages would be for the jury.

Judgment reversed.

Pannell and Quillian, JJ., concur.