Court Opinion

ID: 9586631
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:13:30.839774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:45.892374
License: Public Domain

Felton, Chief Judge,
dissenting. I prepared the majority opinion in this case with the exception of divisions 4 and 6. I do not agree with the views expressed in those divisions or in the judgment.
The special demurrer to the allegation of paragraph 8 of the amended petition that it was the duty of the defendant not to drive her automobile into and against another human being is well taken. In Minkovitz v. Fine, 67 Ga. App. 176, 181 (19 S. E. 2d 561) this court observed: “Generally the defendant’s negligence will not be presumed from the mere happening of the accident. In negligence cases the plaintiff has the burden of showing that the defendant failed to perform a duty owing to the plaintiff.” The mere fact that the defendant drove her automobile into and against another human being does not of itself make her liable for the injury. In order to render her liable the collision must be caused by some negligence- on her part which is the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. It was therefore error to overrule this ground of special demurrer. “An error in overruling a demurrer to a pleading is prima facie harmful. Such error is not cured and rendered harmless unless it appears with reasonable certainty that no injury has resulted to the complaining party.” McDonald v. Wimpy, *248204 Ga. 617, 623 (50 S. E. 2d 347) and cit. Since it cannot be said as a matter of law that the evidence demands a finding that the defendant was negligent in any other specified particular, this error was not rendered harmless and, in my opinion, constitutes a ground for reversal of the judgment of the superior court. The demurrer seeking to strike the allegation “disregarding her duties” in paragraph 9 of the amended petition on the ground that the duties which the defendant is alleged to have disregarded are not specified therein is likewise valid in my opinion. While certain alleged duties of the defendant are set forth elsewhere in the petition with particularity, the allegation specially demurred to does not refer to these in any manner and is consequently subject to- demurrer on the ground pointed out. I do not think that these special demurrers are unreasonable or “pernickety,” as Justice Frankfurter once described the Georgia rules of pleading. It would have been a very simple matter for the court to have eliminated these errors from the pleadings. It is impossible for anyone to say that the errors were harmless.