Court Opinion

ID: 9579332
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:53:59.022223+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:27.310200
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I must except to the majority’s limiting the application of the common law action per quod servitium amisit, codified at OCGA § 51-1-9 (Code Ann. § 105-107), to cases involving intentional torts. I find no authority under Georgia law for such a limitation.
OCGA § 51-2-2 (Code Ann. § 105-108) provides that “every person shall be liable for torts committed by his wife, his child, or his servant by his command or in the prosecution and within the scope of his business, whether the same are commited by negligence or voluntarily.” It appears to me that in applying these provisions, this court has generally had more difficulty finding a wilful, employee tortfeasor to have acted within the scope of his employment, than in cases involving alleged negligence. See Jones v. Reserve Ins. Co., 149 Ga. App. 176 (253 SE2d 849) (1979); Davis v. Childers, 134 Ga. App. 534 (215 SE2d 297) (1975). Yet, relying upon the persuasive authority of other jurisdictions and narrowly reading the few Georgia cases where an employer tried to recover for the loss of his employee’s services, the majority concludes that the employer may recover from the employer of the tortfeasor only where the tort was intentional.
The case law in Georgia simply does not rule out recovery for negligent injuries in cases such as the present one. In Frazier v. Ga. R. &c. Co., 101 Ga. 70 (28 SE 684) (1897), the Supreme Court, in explaining the application of the action of trespass vi et armis, per quod servitium amisit, noted that the plaintiff would have to show negligent homicide and the loss of his ser vice. In Crenshaw v. L. & N. R. Co., 15 Ga. App. 182 (82 SE 767) (1914), this court likewise noted that the plaintiff had to show a loss of services to recover for an injury caused by the defendant’s negligence. The salient point in Fluker v. Ga. R. &c. Co., 81 Ga. 461 (8 SE 529) (1889), was that an action for an assault and battery committed upon a servant depended upon a showing of a loss of services; absolutely no significance was attached to the fact that the injury complained of was intentional rather than *155negligent.
As acknowledged by the majority, an employer’s cause of action for loss of an employee’s services ultimately extends from the idea of paterfamilias, which was incorporated into the English common law by Bracton. The majority suggests that the foundation of the cause of action is antiquated because the modern employment relationship is based on contract and not status. It is clear, however, that the principal element of the doctrine, as incorporated into the common law, has not been that a master has a proprietary interest in the servant, but rather in the services of the servant, an interest obtained by the master through the contract of employment. As Blackstone commented, “[t]he reason and foundation upon which all this doctrine is built, seem to be the property that every man has in service of his domestics; acquired by the contract of hiring, and purchased by giving them wages.” W. Blackstone, 1 Commentaries on the Laws of England * 417. As the above cases indicate, our appellate courts have adhered to that analysis, and have not limited application of the doctrine so as to exclude regular employment relationships. “The right of the master to the service of his servant is an incorporeal hereditament.” Frazier, supra, at p. 77. Thus the two leading authorities as to common law relating to the question at hand, Lord Coke1 and Blackstone,2 agree generally that the gist of the action in this type of case is loss of service.
The majority apparently favors the position taken on this matter in other jurisdictions, relying heavily on the decision written by President Caplan of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in Nemo Foundations v. New River Co., 155 W.Va. 149 (181 SE2d 687) (1971), and has in our opinion misconstrued the existing, binding Georgia Supreme Court cases. Indeed, it comes perilously close to overruling these cases, which it, of course, cannot do, by its limitation on this cause of action. This court cannot designate as dicta principles propounded by the Supreme Court as ratio decidendi.
*156Notwithstanding the above, even if the cause of action exists only where an intentional tort occurs, the trial court erred in granting the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The plaintiffs complaint labels the injury neither negligent nor intentional; it simply alleges that the defendant’s employee “failed to stop and crashed into the rear of the automobile being driven by the plaintiffs employees...” A complaint should be dismissed for failure to state a claim for relief only where it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief. Atlanta Assoc. v. Westminister Properties, 242 Ga. 462 (249 SE2d 252) (1978); Moultrie v. Atlanta Fed. Sav. &c. Assn., 148 Ga. App. 650 (252 SE2d 77) (1979). Because the complaint here does not rule out a set of facts involving an intentional tort, under the majority’s own reasoning, dismissal of the complaint was improper.
For the above reasons, I respectfully dissent.

 Thomas Jefferson and most of the founding fathers considered Lord Coke as the father of the true science of jurisprudence. He differed with Blackstone’s favoring of an all powerful sovereign parliament referring to these attorney advocates as “Blackstone Lawyers.” Thomas Jefferson, Writings (Library Ed., Vol. XIV, p. 63.) On the other hand, Coke held the parliament as not absolutely sovereign and left the door open so it could be questioned.

 Sir Edmund Burke noted that more copies of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law have been sold in the American Colonies than in the whole of England. See 150 Ga. Appeals Reports XL. As to which is more popular (Coke or Blackstone) is a debatable issue.