Court Opinion

ID: 9619713
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:32:02.531084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:43.635698
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent because, in. my view, the majority overemphasizes the prompt action of the city and the duration of the defect without considering other factors which pertain to those same matters.
The chief of police testified that he considered the intersection, Ga. 17 and Ga. 172, to be dangerous, whether the light was working or not; that he called the city clerk and upon finding the clerk having lunch at home, he called Georgia Power; and that when Georgia Power did not respond in a short period of time, he called the power company again, before the collision in issue here. Although the chief of police considered the intersection to be a hazard, so much so that he was concerned when the defect was not promptly fixed, he did not direct traffic at the intersection or cause someone to do so.
The city clerk testified that he received the chiefs call at home, and that the city had a supply of bulbs and a superintendent of utilities who could have replaced the burned out bulb but who was not called upon to do so.
In my view the question of whether the city was maintaining a nuisance cannot be decided on the basis of duration alone. The degree of the danger created by the defect must be considered in determining the *813reasonableness or unreasonableness of the duration. For example, if the chief of police sees a fire raging in a city park and spreading toward a hospital, the time allowed for action will not be controlled by the four hours allowed for moving a disabled truck in City of Atlanta v. Roberts, 133 Ga. App. 585 (2) (211 SE2d 615) (1974). The same would be true if the city learned that a bridge had washed away.
In my view the city did not show that there was no genuine issue of fact as to whether a nuisance existed and hence the grant of summary judgment to the city was error. It follows that the Court of Appeals correctly decided this case and we should not reverse.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Nichols joins in this dissent.