Court Opinion

ID: 9568057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:00:24.520068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:18.006848
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
The majority has attempted to create a rule of law that vests upon all who supervise another’s child an obligation so stringent in application that such supervising person or entity becomes in effect an insurer for the safety of such child; I am compelled to dissent. By dramatically extending the range of foreseeability of all who supervise children, the majority has increased the potential for liability of all who supervise children whether such be undertaken for profit, civic duty, or mere personal accommodation borne of neighborly compassion.
Bad facts spawn bad law; the facts of this case (to the extent adequately developed in the record) are bad! This child suffers the effects of a horrible crime caused by the depraved misconduct of a third party. Bad and painful things happened to this innocent little boy. Thus, the majority understandably strives to justify its disposition of this matter — unfortunately by reaching in several instances beyond the pale of the official record. For good reason, this court has opined repeatedly that the appellate process affords no latitude to make adjustments either for the ill-earned good fortune of the lucky or for the heart-rending misfortune of the unlucky. First Financial *539Ins. Co. v. Rainey, 195 Ga. App. 655, 664 (394 SE2d 774). I am concerned that a majority of my colleagues has disposed of this case by inadvertently making “adjustments.”
1. The majority claims it is construing the evidence most favorable to the plaintiffs as the nonmovants on a motion for summary judgment. However, in doing so an appellate court cannot ignore statutory requirements. OCGA § 9-11-56 (e) requires, in effect, that the medium used to present evidence either in support or opposition to a motion for summary judgment (e.g., affidavit, deposition, answers to interrogatories) “set forth such facts as would be admissible in the evidence.” Thus hearsay evidence, being without probative value for any purpose with or without objection at trial, cannot be considered in disposition of a summary judgment motion, unless it is part of the res gestae. See Strickland v. DeKalb Hosp. Auth., 197 Ga. App. 63, 65 (2 a) (397 SE2d 576). Further, “[i]n response to a motion for summary judgment, the non-moving party may not rest on generalized allegations, but must come forward with specific facts to show that there is a genuine issue for trial.” (Emphasis supplied.) Precise v. City of Rossville, 261 Ga. 210, 212 (3) (403 SE2d 47).
There is no deposition or affidavit from the victim included in this record. In fact, there exists no eyewitness account as to how specifically, when specifically, or why specifically the child vanished from the Boys Club. The statement of facts, recited in the majority opinion, as to how and why the child departed the premises, at best, are based on speculations of witnesses. An inference cannot be based upon evidence which is too uncertain or speculative or which raises merely a conjecture or possibility. Green v. Sams, 209 Ga. App. 491, 498 (1) (433 SE2d 678). Further, negligence is not to be presumed, but is a matter for affirmative proof; the mere fact of injury or damage does not give rise to a presumption or inference of negligence; and, in the absence of affirmative proof of negligence, we must presume the performance of duty and freedom from negligence. Wilson v. Southern R. Co., 208 Ga. App. 598, 600 (2) (431 SE2d 383).
Applying the duty of care of Laite v. Baxter, 126 Ga. App. 743 (2) (191 SE2d 531), the majority concludes that, based on facts perceived by them to have been adequately established, a genuine issue of material fact exists as to appellant’s duty and breach thereof. Pretermitting whether Laite v. Baxter, supra, or the premises liability standards for “active negligence” of Wade v. Mitchell, 206 Ga. App. 265 (2) (424 SE2d 810) apply and whether a genuine issue of material fact as to the issues of duty and breach exist is whether a genuine issue of material fact exists as to causation.
Two distinct legal theories are involved in questions of causation; theories of direct causation and proximate cause. As to proximate cause, the inquiry is not whether the defendant’s conduct constituted *540a cause of the injury, but whether the causal connection between that conduct and the injury is too remote for the law to countenance a recovery; even where a defendant is negligent, if other and contingent circumstances preponderate largely in causing the injurious effect, such damages are too remote and contingent to be the basis of a recovery. Atlanta Gas Light Co. v. Gresham, 260 Ga. 391, 393 (4) (394 SE2d 345). Proximate cause in law has been aptly described as a limit on legal liability; it is a policy decision that for a variety of reasons (e.g., intervening act) the defendant’s conduct will be deemed too remote in relation to plaintiff’s injuries to support recovery. Atlanta Obstetrics &c. v. Coleman, 260 Ga. 569 (398 SE2d 16). For reasons hereinafter discussed, I believe that there exists no genuine issue of fact necessary to support a finding of proximate cause.
2. In my view, the majority has engaged in a radical departure in its application of principles of foreseeability, thereby making those who supervise children in effect insurers for their charges’ safety. Further, this is accomplished notwithstanding the contrary expressions of Laite v. Baxter, supra, and Riley v. Brasunas, 210 Ga. App. 865 (438 SE2d 113).
Although usually arising in premises liability cases, this state has a well-established body of law pertaining to the foreseeability of acts of criminal conduct committed during the intervention of a third party. The majority has chosen not to apply this law but rather to forge a new standard as to foreseeability in child supervision cases, apparently relying on secondary authority — the opinion of a California intermediate appellate court. Although I have the strongest feelings of compassion and sympathy for the victim in this case, I cannot follow the uncharted course set by my colleagues.
In this case, the victim’s injuries were directly caused by the criminal acts perpetrated upon him by a third party. Also, as must be conceded by the majority, there exists not one shred of evidence of any similar violent criminal sexual attack at or near the Boys Club; there exists no evidence of any type of violence at or near the Boys Club, sexual or otherwise. Further, the record does not establish that the Boys Club knew or reasonably should have known of the sexual proclivities of the victim’s assailant. Nevertheless, the majority concludes, as a matter of judicial policy regarding the issue of proximate cause, that a specific supervisor of children must foresee all forms of intervening child abuse and related criminal conduct merely because the majority deems it a matter of general public knowledge that children have been the subjects of abduction and abuse by third parties, albeit such criminal interventions may have occurred under a variety of dissimilar circumstances and at other times and other places. The majority attempts to justify this position by stating that “[o]ne has only to read the daily newspapers, or even the reported *541cases of this court, to appreciate the prevalence of child abduction and abuse in our society.” While there have been numerous reported incidents of a variety of child abuse cases (far more often committed by parents, relatives or family friends of a victim than by strangers abducting the child), can it be legitimately concluded that such conduct is now “prevalent” in our society? I think not. Is the local Sunday School teacher in a relatively crime-free, rural community now required reasonably to foresee that a child who physically strays from the fold will be abducted from church property even though no similar acts have ever occurred previously in that community? It would seem so, if all that is required is a general finding, notwithstanding the state of the trial record, that child abuse and abduction appears to be prevalent in our society. Additionally, the majority states, “[t] hough we wish it were otherwise, a jury could reasonably find that the abduction and abuse of young children who are not properly supervised is foreseeable and is one of the dangers parents and other care givers expressly protect children from by providing them proper supervision and care.” (Emphasis supplied.) The potential for expansion of parental and volunteer care giver liability posed by this broad language is self-evident. I cannot join in such a holding.
The majority discounts the precedent of Savannah College of Art &c. v. Roe, 261 Ga. 764 (409 SE2d 848), requiring a specific showing of similar acts on or near the premises, as being a rule applicable only to premises liability cases. While not conceding that premises liability law does not here pertain, I believe that the general rules pertaining to foreseeability of third-party criminal intervention are not limited in application to premises liability cases. In Rosinek v. Cox Enterprises, 166 Ga. App. 699 (305 SE2d 393), appellant sought to recover for the alleged negligence of appellee in delivering papers when appellant was not at home thereby increasing the risk of burglary to her subsequently burglarized home. In Rosinek, this court applied the general rule of third-party criminal intervention, thus: “Generally, an intervening criminal act of a third-party, without which the injury would not have occurred, will be treated as the proximate cause of the injury, thus superseding any negligence of the defendant; however, if the criminal act was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s conduct, the causal connection between that conduct and the injury is not broken.” Id. at 700; compare Gafford v. Duncan, 210 Ga. App. 350 (436 SE2d 78) (physical precedent only). The similarity rule employed in Savannah College, supra, is well established. Compare Ashley v. Balcor Property &c., 205 Ga. App. 590 (423 SE2d 14) and cases therein cited; Nalle v. Quality Inn, 183 Ga. App. 119 (358 SE2d 281). In Savannah College, supra at 766, the Supreme Court concluded, citing Adler’s Package Shop v. Parker, 190 Ga. App. 68, 70 (378 SE2d 323), that “[i]n light of the dearth of evidence of the *542occurrence of prior substantially similar incidents, the college was entitled to summary judgment because there was no evidence sufficient to create a factual issue as to whether the college knew or should have known that its dormitory residents were at risk of a violent criminal sexual attack.” In Adler, supra at 70, this court in upholding grant of summary judgment observed that “ ‘ “[w]hile the relevancy of other occurrences is ordinarily within the sound discretion of the court, ‘it is necessary that the conditions of the things compared be substantially similar.’ [Cit.] Without a showing of substantial similarity, the evidence is irrelevant as a matter of law and there is nothing upon which the court’s discretion can operate. . . .” McCoy v. Gay, 165 Ga. App. 590, 592 (302 SE2d 130).’ ” This rule, as adopted from McCoy, supra, can be directly traced to an appellate ruling in a personal injury action appeal in Carlton Co. v. Poss, 124 Ga. App. 154, 155 (3) (183 SE2d 231), aff’d Poss v. Carlton Co., 228 Ga. 402 (185 SE2d 803). The similarity rule is not restricted in scope merely to premises liability cases; it is a separate rule operating as a part of the body of law concerning foreseeability in third-party (criminal) intervention cases.
As in Adler, supra at 69, it is “ ‘ “[n]ot what actually happened, but what the reasonably prudent person would then have foreseen as likely to happen,” that is the key whether a jury issue arises as to the issue of proximate cause in situations involving intervening third-party criminal activity. This result is consistent with the long-standing rule that “ ‘one is not ordinarily charged with the duty to anticipate acts mala per se.’ ” Hercules, Inc. v. Lewis, 168 Ga. App. 688, 689 (309 SE2d 865). In this case, defendant/movant produced evidence establishing the existence of intervention in the form of third-party criminal activity, this evidence was sufficient to overcome plaintiff’s pleadings, under the basic rule that liability generally will not occur when injury is due to the criminal misconduct of others. Having discharged its duty in summary judgment cases, under Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491 (405 SE2d 474), the nonmoving appellants were required to “point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue” — in this situation, a triable issue as to proximate cause. Appellants, in my view, failed to carry their burden under Lau’s, supra, and have failed to do so regardless of whether the “similarity rule” is here applicable. Questions of proximate cause and foreseeability may and should be decided as questions of law in clear and palpable cases. Atlanta Gas Light Co., supra at 393.
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Judge Andrews joins in this dissent.
*543Decided December 3, 1993
Reconsideration denied December 20, 1993
Andrew M. Scherffius III, Tamara M. Ayres, James C. Brim, Jr., for appellants.
Webb, Carlock, Copeland, Semler & Stair, Dennis J. Webb, Marvin D. Dikeman, for appellee.