Source: http://lawskills.com/case/ga/id/589/81/index.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 18:12:33+00:00

Document:
GLOVER v. SOUTHERN BELL TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY et al.
Action for damages. Fulton Superior Court. Before Judge Williams.
Having been presented previously in our Supreme Court for consideration of a collateral issue (Glover v. Southern Bell Tel. &c. Co., 229 Ga. 874 (195 SE2d 11)), this case now makes its second appellate appearance.
Plaintiff was injured when a vehicle, driven by plaintiff, was struck from the rear by a utility truck of the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company. At the trial of his suit in which he sought damages in the amount of $65,500, a verdict of $1,000 was returned for plaintiff. Being dissatisfied with the result plaintiff filed a motion for new trial on general grounds to which special grounds were added by amendment. This appeal from the overruling of that new trial motion as amended enumerates as error the various points presented to the trial court by that motion.
2. Plaintiff contends the trial court erred in excluding plaintiff's testimony as to various additional medical bills. Plaintiff attempted to testify from a memorandum which he had prepared summarizing such expenditures. After the court's ruling on the memorandum the individual bills were introduced into evidence. Thereby, any error in exclusion of plaintiff's memorandum testimony was made harmless. Murray v. Hawkins, 144 Ga. 613, 614 (7) (87 SE 1068); Jones v. Blackburn, 75 Ga. App. 791, 794 (4) (44 SE2d 555). As was stated in Headnote 6 of Mitchell v. Gay, 111 Ga. App. 867 (143 SE2d 568): "There was no reversible error in excluding evidence offered to prove a fact which was admitted or fully established by other evidence." In accord are Eberhardt v. Bennett, 163 Ga. 793 (2) (137 SE 64)and Hunt v. Williams, 104 Ga. App. 442 (2) (122 SE2d 149).
3. This same principle of harmless error contained in the cases cited in the foregoing division applies to the next evidentiary error complained of by appellant. When plaintiff concluded his case he sought again to submit medical bills including that of the chiropractor "for the purpose of showing pain and suffering and not for the purpose of collecting." (T. 293). Plaintiff had already testified as to the nature and extent of his chiropractic treatment. (T. 59-61). Likewise, the medical bills summarized in his memorandum were admitted upon proof of relationship with the claim. Accordingly, we find no basis for a reversal as to these conditions.
4. Plaintiff asserts the trial court erred in excluding from the evidence portions of Dr. Lawrence Lee Freeman's depositional testimony. A reading of the trial transcript beginning at page 117 indicates that the deposition was not introduced as such but was read before the jury. At those portions which appellant contends were erroneously excluded the transcript slows that objections were made by defense counsel. Instead of reading those portions into the trial record and obtaining a ruling by the judge thereon, the portions were omitted. Thus we are unable to pass upon the assertion. Our "decision must be made on the record sent to this court by the clerk of the court below and not upon the briefs of counsel." Jenkins v. Board of Zoning &c., 122 Ga. App. 412, 413 (2) (177 SE2d 204).
As no motion for postponement was made, our ruling must be in conformance with that stated in the seventh headnote of Nathan v. Duncan, supra: "[A]llowance of the witnesses to testify over objection that the names were not supplied is a matter in the sound discretion of the trial judge and is not ground for new trial."
6. Plaintiff avers error in the trial court's denial of his motion for a directed verdict upon the issue of negligence. Although defendant did not present any witnesses to testify concerning the details of the rear-end collision, plaintiff's evidence created questions as to diligence and proximate cause. Accordingly, the trial court was correct in denying the motion. Buckhead Glass Co. v. Taylor, 226 Ga. 247 (174 SE2d 568). See also Harper v. Plunkett, 122 Ga. App. 63 (176 SE2d 187); Robertson v. Jackson, 123 Ga. App. 623 (181 SE2d 905); and Brown v. Nutter, 125 Ga. App. 449, 450 (3) (188 SE2d 133).
In dealing with this enumeration of error we observe that the appellant's brief states that "Movant is not unmindful of the long list of cases cited in 20 Ga. Digest, Trial Key No. 171, to the effect that it is never error to refuse to direct a verdict." For the benefit of bench and bar we deem it proper to note that these cases are no longer binding as a result of changes made by the Appellate Practice Act of 1965 and the Civil Practice Act of 1966. Code Ann. 6-702 (b) and 81A-150 (e) now empower the appellate courts to pass upon the correctness of a denial of a motion for directed verdict. This also applies to criminal cases. Merino v. State, 230 Ga. 604 (198 SE2d 311).
7. Assuming, but not deciding, that the trial judge erred in charging the jury on the degree of care which the plaintiff was bound to exercise, such error was harmless since the verdict was for plaintiff. "[I]t has long been the rule that when a verdict has been returned in favor of the plaintiff, errors in the giving of the charge, in omissions from the charge or in the refusal of requests which go to the matter of liability only are harmless to the plaintiff and afford no ground for reversal at his instance. [Cits.]" Maloy v. Dixon, 127 Ga. App. 151, 155 (193 SE2d 19); Sharp v. Thomas, 125 Ga. App. 137, 138 (2) (186 SE2d 589).
8. As to the general grounds, it is sufficient to quote the following from Beecher v. Farley, 104 Ga. App. 785 (1) (123 SE2d 184): "[T]he general grounds present no basis for granting a new trial because the only actual complaint he has is the fact that the verdict was, he claims, too small, and the question of the inadequacy of the verdict is not raised by the general grounds of a motion for a new trial. Trammell v. Atlanta Coach Co., 51 Ga. App. 705 (181 SE 315)."
Kilpatrick, Cody, Rogers, McClatchey & Regenstein, Mathew H. Patton, Robert W. Coleman, for appellees.
White, Webb & Jewett, C. Lawrence Jewett, for appellant.
ARGUED APRIL 1, 1974 -- DECIDED MAY 15, 1974 -- REHEARING DENIED JUNE 12, 1974 -- CERT. APPLIED FOR.

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