GA Code § 44-12-62 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 44 - Property|Chapter 12 - Rights in Personalty|Article 3 - Bailments|Part 2 - Hiring|§ 44-12-62. Duties of Hirer; Liability for Acts of Bailor's Agents

  The duties of the hirer of things are:   To put the thing to no other use than that for which it is hired;   To take ordinary care in its use;   To redeliver the thing at the expiration of the bailment; and   To comply generally with the terms of the hiring.     If the bailor sends his own agents with the thing bailed, the hirer shall not be liable for the acts of such agents but shall only be liable either to the bailor or to third persons for the consequences of his own directions and for gross neglect.    (Orig. Code 1863, § 2060; Code 1868, § 2063; Code 1873, § 2089; Code 1882, § 2089; Civil Code 1895, § 2907; Civil Code 1910, § 3480; Code 1933, § 12-203.)   Cross references.   - Theft by conversion, § 16-8-4.   JUDICIAL DECISIONS    Lessee of personal property is termed bailee for hire.  Goger v. United States, 4 Bankr. 4 (N.D. Ga. 1979).    Hirer is bound only for ordinary diligence in a contract of mutual benefit and is responsible only for ordinary negligence, or for that degree of care and diligence which the generality of mankind use in keeping their own goods of the same kind. Malone v. Robinson, 77 Ga. 719 (1886); Evans & Pennington v. Nail, 1 Ga. App. 42, 57 S.E. 1020 (1907); Brannan & Holder v. Moore, 135 Ga. 517, 69 S.E. 820 (1910).    Bailee's control and responsibility is limited in respect to conduct of servant furnished to operate chattel. Hill Aircraft & Leasing Corp. v. Simon, 122 Ga. App. 524, 177 S.E.2d 803 (1970).    Where the plaintiff leased an airplane to the defendant, and sent with the airplane a co-pilot employed by the plaintiff, and the airplane was subsequently damaged due to a steering mechanism malfunction, the evidence created a jury question as to the plaintiff's contributory negligence, and the plaintiff was not entitled to a directed verdict. Jet Air, Inc. v. EPPS Air Serv., Inc., 194 Ga. App. 829, 392 S.E.2d 245 (1990).    Owner of vehicle who employs driver is responsible for driver's negligence, rather than the hirer where the hirer has no supervision or control of the servant's mechanical operation of the vehicle and no right to discharge the driver and take over the operation of the vehicle personally or put it in the hands of another to operate. Montgomery Trucking Co. v. Black, 231 Ga. 211, 200 S.E.2d 882 (1973).   Liability of party hiring crane for operator's negligence.   - For a discussion of the liability of a hirer of a crane for the negligence of the crane operator in lifting a concrete hopper, see Sims Crane Serv., Inc. v. Ideal Steel Prods., Inc., 750 F.2d 884 (11th Cir. 1985).    Because a contract between a crane owner and a general contractor stated that the owner's employee was a borrowed servant, a trial court correctly granted summary judgment in a negligence action arising from injuries resulting from the crane operation. Tim's Crane & Rigging, Inc. v. Gibson, 278 Ga. 796, 604 S.E.2d 763 (2004).    Trial court erred in granting summary judgment to the Georgia Ports Authority on the issue of liability in its breach of contract action against a lessee because neither the parties' contract for the lease of a gantry crane, nor the other evidence before the trial court, established that a crane operator was the lessee's borrowed servant as a matter of law under O.C.G.A. § 44-12-62(b). Cooper/T. Smith Stevedoring Co. v. State of Ga., 317 Ga. App. 362, 730 S.E.2d 168 (2012), cert. denied, No. S12C2016, S12C2023, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 34, 51 (Ga. 2013).   Liability of employer for tractor carrying trash.    - Because an employer, as bailor, sent the employer's own employee with the thing bailed, a tractor with attached trash trailer, under O.C.G.A. § 44-12-62(b), a contractor, as the hirer, was liable only for the consequences of the hirer's own directions or for the hirer's gross negligence; the trial court erred in concluding that the contractor was entitled to summary judgment on the basis that the employee was not a borrowed servant because the evidence presented at least a factual issue regarding whether the employee was the contractor's borrowed servant since there was evidence that the contractor alone supervised the employee's work hauling debris, that the contractor controlled the employee's schedule for each day, and that the contractor dictated which landfill would receive the debris and when a load was ready. Coe v. Carroll & Carroll, Inc., 308 Ga. App. 777, 709 S.E.2d 324 (2011).   Status as employee or servant genuine issue of material fact.    - Whether a backhoe operator remained an employee of the defendant contractor or became a servant of the plaintiff's employer upon renting the backhoe from the defendant is a genuine issue of material fact. Mitchell v. Burden Bros., 126 Ga. App. 75, 189 S.E.2d 909 (1972).    Cited in Tyner & Blackmon v. Fryer Truck & Tractor Co., 83 Ga. App. 393, 63 S.E.2d 695 (1951); Ray Wright Enters., Inc. v. Reaves, 128 Ga. App. 745, 197 S.E.2d 856 (1973); Dove v. National Freight, Inc., 138 Ga. App. 114, 225 S.E.2d 477 (1976); Camp v. T.E. Cline, Inc., 141 Ga. App. 328, 233 S.E.2d 280 (1977); Reliance Ins. Co. v. Bridges, 168 Ga. App. 874, 311 S.E.2d 193 (1983).   RESEARCH REFERENCES   Am. Jur. 2d.   - 8 Am. Jur. 2d, Bailments, § 83 et seq.   C.J.S.   - 8 C.J.S., Bailments, § 31.   ALR.    - Relation between customer and broker receiving bonds or other securities for sale or exchange, 52 A.L.R. 501.    Liability of bailee for damage to or destruction of subject of bailment by servant acting for his own purposes or in violation of his instructions, 52 A.L.R. 711.    Duty and liability of fair association, or other bailee, as regards articles entrusted to it for exhibition or display, 139 A.L.R. 931.   Who is member of the immediate family within automobile lease provision restricting use of rented automobile to customer and members of his immediate family, 80 A.L.R.3d 1170.   Liability of owner or bailor of horse for injury by horse to hirer or bailee thereof, 6 A.L.R.4th 358.