Court Opinion

ID: 9582720
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:30:39.180564+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:16.285028
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
“Where a jury returns a verdict and it has the approval of the trial judge, the same must be affirmed on appeal if there is any evidence to support it as the jurors are the sole and exclusive judges of the weight and credit given the evidence. . . . The appellate court must construe the evidence with every inference and presumption in favor of upholding the verdict, and after judgment, the evidence must be construed to uphold the verdict even where the evidence is in conflict. As long as there is some evidence to support the verdict, the denial of defendant’s motion for . . . j.n.o.v. will not be disturbed.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Willis v. Brassell, 220 Ga. App. 348 (469 SE2d 733). While I must readily acknowledge that plaintiff presented a weak case in several respects, I do not agree with the conclusion of the majority that there was a complete failure of proof such as would warrant reversal. As I would uphold the verdict of the jury, I respectfully dissent.
Both plaintiff and her husband conducted some inspection of the premises. While these inspections were limited in scope, the parame*807ters were determined by the nature of the property. The land was covered by a thick and impassable undergrowth. Those who testified as to actually traversing the land testified as to their difficulty in doing so and as to the nature of the work which would be necessary to clear the land for reasonable access. The jury may have concluded that plaintiff exercised due diligence under the circumstances.
Decided December 4, 1996.
Jones, Cork & Miller, Thomas C. James III, for appellant.
Adams & Hemingway, Ward Stone, Jr., for appellee.
Also, the jury could have reasonably determined that even a higher degree of diligence on the part of plaintiff would have been unlikely to have disclosed the presence of the landfill on the property. See Hanlon v. Thornton, 218 Ga. App. 500, 503 (462 SE2d 154). That landfill consisted of a “wash” which had been filled in with debris and the site was obscured by the undergrowth. Contrary to the majority opinion, I do not view the surface debris as providing any notice of the landfill and consequently maintain that there was no heightened duty on the part of plaintiff to search for such a defect. Whether the plaintiff was required to walk every foot of the property in order to satisfy the due diligence requirement was a question for the jury. Similarly, the question of whether the inspection actually conducted by plaintiff was sufficient is also a jury matter and should not be overturned on appeal under the circumstances of this case.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Pope and Judge Blackburn join in this dissent.