Court Opinion

ID: 9617598
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:58:32.530088+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:13.180637
License: Public Domain

Hall, Judge,
concurring specially with judgment of affirmance.
I must take exception to the statement made in the above opinion that the full court in Harrell v. Gardner, 115 Ga. App. 171 (154 SE2d 265) rejected the argument that the statutes involved in Code Ch. 105-13 create new causes of action, unknown to the common law. On the contrary, the court specifically recognized that the child had been given a new cause of action which did not exist at common law. The question was, “when it changed the common law,” did it authorize the “action only against third persons other than the father?”
The result in this case is controlled by the following authorities: Berry v. Northeastern Railroad, 72 Ga. 137 (1); Thompson v. Watson, 186 Ga. 396, 401 (197 SE 774, 117 ALR 484); Harrell v. Gardner, 115 Ga. App. 171, supra; Chastain v. Chastain, 50 Ga. App. 241 (3) (177 SE 828); Heyman v. Heyman, 19 Ga. App. 634 (92 SE 25).
As a matter of public policy, I concede that a strong argument can be made that there is nothing wrong in allowing a child to sue his stepfather for the wrongful death of his mother. However, the law on this question is not simply what the judges of this court think the law should be, but what the General Assembly has said it is. In seeking former legislative intent, we cannot look forward to recent trends in other states, we must look back to the intent of our own General Assembly. When making this search, we must look to the law as it stood before the statutes were enacted, the mischief against which they did not provide, the remedy which the legislature provided at that time, and the reason .for the remedy. At common law and in Georgia prior to the Act of 1850, the mother could sue many persons for the wrongful tort committed against her except that she could not sue her husband. Heyman v. Heyman, 19 Ga. App. 634, supra. However, if the tort resulted in her death, then the tort action did not survive against those, persons who would have been liable had death not ensued. In 1846, England enacted a *50law known as “The Fatal Accidents Act” or “Lord Campbell’s Act.” This is discussed in an excellent article entitled Actions for Wrongful Death in Georgia, by the late Dean of the Emory Law School, Charles J. Hilkey in 9 Georgia Bar Journal 261, 268, wherein, he states that “the English Act, although tested in the first instant by the right of the deceased to bring the action had he lived, created in 'substance a new and original right in certain beneficiaries.” Four years subsequent to “Lord Campbell’s Act” the Georgia General Assembly enacted a similar provision based upon the English statute. In the 1850 Act, “The distribution in case of insolvency of one-half of the recovery to the wife and children or to the husband, indicates that the act intended to create a new cause of action rather than to provide for survival of that of the deceased with an added element of damage due to death.” Hilkey, p. 370. Specific language is found in the Codes of 1861 (§ 2913), p. 543, and 1867 (§ 2920), p. 552, authorizing a suit by the children for the wrongful death of the mother. The identical language of these Codes is also found in the Code of 1873 (§ 2971), p. 511. In an 1880 case involving a suit by children for wrongful death of the mother, the Supreme Court stated that these Acts were “codified from the Acts of 1850 and 1855-6 — Cobb’s Digest, p. 476; Acts of 1855-6, p. 155. . .” Atlanta & W. P. R. Co. v. Venable, 65 Ga. 55. The 1855-6 Act was merely cumulative and did not repeal the Act of 1850. Southwestern R. Co. v. Paulk, 24 Ga. 356.
It is now known as Code Ann. § 105-1306. In all these Acts, “It is deemed that in cases where the deceased had no cause of action before his death that none should be accorded to his beneficiaries or estate.” Hilkey, p. 371. While the Code of 1861 and subsequent Codes do not have language that the action “could be brought where the deceased, if death had not ensued, would be entitled to an action against the wrongdoer. . . The inference from the original requirement would be that in cases where the deceased could not have brought an action, had he lived, no action for wrongful death could be maintained. The general rule in America has been to read this requirement into the statute though not specifically included. [25A CJS 616, § 24; 22 AmJur2d 659, § 80]. The Georgia courts have recognized this *51requirement, although the converse is not true that the beneficiaries have an action if the deceased was entitled to an action, since the recovery is not for the benefit of the estate generally but by or on behalf of specified beneficiaries.” Hilkey, 9 Ga. Bar J., p. 373. For this statement, Dean Hilkey cites the cases of Berry v. Northeastern Railroad, 72 Ga. 137 (1), 138 and Thompson v. Watson, 186 Ga. 396, 401 (197 SE 774). The Berry case (a full bench decision) held that, “A widow may recover for the homicide of her husband; she will have a right of action whenever the husband, had he lived, would have had such right, and whatever would have been a good defense to his suit, had he lived, will be equally available against one brought by her.” In the Thompson case (two Justices dissenting), four children brought an action against their sister for the wrongful death of their father. The defendant demurred on two grounds (1) that there was no cause of action in the children against another child of the family for the wrongful death of the father, and (2) if any right there was, it vested in all — not individually. The Supreme Court upheld the demurrer on both grounds. As to the latter ground, the law was amended in 1960 to allow the action to be brought by a smaller number of parties than all. The Supreme Court took the same position as the amendment in Walden v. Coleman, 217 Ga. 599 (124 SE2d 265, 95 ALR2d 579) where a wife sued a son-in-law for the wrongful death of the husband. As to the former ground, the Supreme Court said in Thompson v. Watson, supra: “Since the original statute of 1850 this court has consistently held that no recovery could be had unless the deceased in his lifetime could have maintained an action for damages for the injury to him, and that any defenses good as against the deceased would be good as against the action brought by the beneficiaries. . . It has been consistently held by this court that the statute is in derogation of the common law and must be strictly construed, and in its present form, as to the damages recoverable, has been said to be in the nature of a penalty against the wrongdoer. Savannah Electric Co. v. Bell, 124 Ga. 663 (53 SE 109); Western & Atlantic R. Co. v. Michael, 175 Ga. 1, 14 (165 SE 37). The statute is harsh in that it gives any right of action at all. Cf. Smith v. Hatcher, 102 Ga. *52158, 160 (29 SE 162). Thus in construing the statute we must approach it, not with the idea that it is unjust or harsh if it fails to give a right of action in certain instances, but on the contrary that the harshness lies in the fact that it gives a right of action in any instance. This may seem contrary to a humanitarian point of view; but it has always been a rule of construction of statutes that those in derogation of the common law, that is those which give rights not had under the common law, and those penal in nature must be limited strictly to the meaning of the language employed, and not- extended beyond the plain and explicit terms of the statute. The legislature is presumed to act with knowledge of this rule of construction, and with that body only lies the right and privilege to grant rights not given under the common law and to extend and broaden any rights so granted. Such is not the function of the courts. The statute in plain terms purports to give a right of action to all of the children of the deceased, minor or sui juris. This to our mind plainly evidences an intent to give a right of action for the homicide of the father only when death is caused by the tort of one other than a member of the class designated. Lord Campbell, the author of the first death statute of England from which our present statute evolved, said that his act was passed for the purpose of ‘giving a compensation by action to the families of those killed by the negligence of others.’ 12 Camp. Lives Ld. Ch. 265. . . . [Our statute] evidences an intention to give a right of action to the children for the death of the father only in cases where the death is caused by the tortious act of one other than the children. . . To say that the beneficiaries, by reason of this construction placed upon the statute, may not maintain an action and that none is given in any case where the deceased could not have maintained an action on the tort, is not the equivalent of saying that the beneficiaries could maintain and are given the right to maintain an action in every case where the deceased could have maintained one had he lived. One does not follow from the other; one limits the right of action, the other enlarges it.” Thompson v. Watson, supra, pp. 401, 405-406, 408. The same principle has been applied to the'“avoidance rule”, e.g., where the deceased could have avoided the consequences. Cen*53tral of Ga. R. Co. v. Tapley, 145 Ga. 792 (5) (89 SE 841); Pressley v. Atlanta & W. P. R. Co., 48 Ga. App. 382 (172 SE 731); Porter v. Southern R. Co., 73 Ga. App. 718, 721 (37 SE2d 831). It has been applied to many other defenses which arise at the time of the commission of the wrong. Hilkey, 9 Ga: Bar J., pp. 373-375. As the Supreme Court said in Southland Butane Gas Co. v. Blackwell, 211 Ga. 665, 666 (88 SE2d 6), this principle “is elementary.”
While the Act was amended in 1960 to include dependent illegitimate children and allowed the action to be brought by a smaller number of parties than all entitled to recover, as to whom they can sue the statute remains as silent as the tomb. Its construction in this respect remains the same as stated by our Supreme Court, Lord Campbell and Dean Hilkey — it gives an action to the family of those killed by those other than the family. While it gave a new cause of action, a “condition precedent” to the action was that the deceased could have sued the defendant, if death had not ensued. Hilkey, p. 371.
I agree that the Florida case of Shiver v. Sessions, (Fla.) 80 S2d 905, which bases its decision on the recent trend throughout the country of allowing intra-family lawsuits, supports the appellants’ contention. However, my position is that the “recent trend throughout the country” cannot affect the legislative intent of the General Assembly which has been consistent for over one hundred years.
The statute gives a cause of action to members of the family (husband and/or child or children — emancipated or unemancipated, natural, adopted, and dependent illegitimate of the deceased) to sue all persons “other than a member of the class designated” for the wrongful death of the mother or wife. Their rights rise no higher than that of the mother who could not sue her husband.
I am authorized to state that Judge Eberhardt concurs in this special concurrence.