Court Opinion

ID: 9569285
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:12:27.004456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:52:58.382099
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the judgment of reversal which effectively grants summary judgment on behalf of defendant Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (“MARTA”) in plaintiff Sharon Fife’s tort action arising out of a dangerous condition on MARTA’s property. According to the complaint, on October 6, 1992, at approximately 7:15 p.m., plaintiff “tripped and fell in a trench at the curb, ... in an area of [defendant’s College Park train] station designated for customer drop off and pick up.” Plaintiff denied that there was any lighting on this particular spot, but “it wasn’t dark yet, so it was kind of — it was dusk.” Plaintiff saw her sister, who would give her a ride home, “just as [plaintiff] stepped out of the MARTA train station.” Plaintiff “looked at her [sister’s] car to notice it and then . . . just walked towards the car.” When the sister “pulled up to the curb, . . . [plaintiff] stepped off the curb and that’s where [she] fell.” Plaintiff “was watching where [she] was stepping, but when [she] got to the car door, then [she] looked at the handle on the car door.” When asked whether the place where she fell was easy to see, plaintiff replied, “No. ... I just couldn’t see it. Had I saw it then I wouldn’t have fallen into it. I just couldn’t see it.” Plaintiff expressly clarified that, before she fell, she “didn’t see any of that. And I really don’t think that it looked like it looks now [in March 1994].” Plaintiff identified defense Exhibit 1 at her deposition as depicting “a trench or drainage,” i.e., a slanted gutter leading to a manhole in the curb. “From the angle on the picture it’s in plain view, but from the direction [plaintiff] was coming it was not in plain view.” (Emphasis supplied.) “When [plaintiff] stepped off the curb, [she] expected to step *302on a flat surface so [when she] put [her] foot on the [slanted surface of the drainage gutter], ... it twisted.”
Based upon this recitation from plaintiff’s deposition, I do not join in the majority’s characterization of the evidence, namely that plaintiff “has not introduced any evidence which would show that the hazard was not in plain view[.]” (Majority opinion, ante, p. 299.) Furthermore, MARTA introduced no evidence that the curb was painted in marked contrast to the gutter or that patrons were warned to step down or step carefully. Judging from MARTA’s own photographic exhibit, the trier of fact could very well agree with plaintiff that the slanted trench was not in plain view from the direction and perspective of the plaintiff as she exited the train station but instead was hidden. Consequently, the fact that plaintiff frequented this train station before proves nothing as to her knowledge of the danger posed by the hidden slant of the drainage gutter at this particular location, just as “ ‘(t)he mere fact that (she) has been in the area before will not preclude (her) from recovery for injuries received from defective premises unless (her) failure to observe the defect amounts to a lack of that care which an ordinarily prudent person would exercise under the circumstances.’ Kreiss v. Allatoona Landing, 108 Ga. App. 427, 435 (2b) (133 SE2d 602) (1963).” Shackelford v. DeKalb Farmer’s Market, 180 Ga. App. 348, 350 (2) (349 SE2d 241). It is the general rule that “questions of negligence, diligence, contributory negligence, and proximate cause are peculiarly matters for the jury, and a court should not take the place of the jury in solving them except in plain and indisputable cases. Added to that list are related issues of assumption of risk, lack of ordinary care for one’s own safety, lack of ordinary care in failing to foresee a condition which could cause injury, and even where there is no dispute as to the facts, it is usually for the jury to say whether the conduct in question met the standard of the reasonable man. Unless no other conclusion is permissible, questions of negligence are matters for jury resolution and are not ordinarily susceptible to summary adjudication.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Cunningham v. Nat. Svc. Indus., 174 Ga. App. 832, 836 (331 SE2d 899). In my view, a jury question is presented in the case sub judice as to whether plaintiff Sharon Fife should have seen the dangerously obscured slanting gutter she admits she did not see and testified she could not see from her direction and perspective. The trial court correctly perceived that genuine issues of material fact remain for jury resolution and denied MARTA’s motion for summary judgment. As my colleagues in the majority would nevertheless reverse that correct determination, I respectfully dissent.
*303Decided February 21, 1996.
George E. Powell, Jr., for appellant.
Divida Gude, for appellee.