Court Opinion

ID: 9607228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:56:30.529909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:28.607787
License: Public Domain

Hall, Judge, dissenting.
I concur fully in Chief Judge Felton’s dissent. Since my first semester in law school I have always been under the impression that a general allegation of negligence was good as against general demurrer. Also, that as against a general demurrer, no particular form is required in alleging causal connection between the negligence charged and the injury, and that, as a general rule it is sufficient to make a direct allegation that plaintiff’s injury resulted from or was caused by *514such negligence. Pollard v. Heard, 53 Ga. App. 623, 626 (186 SE 894); Ruhr v. Frizzelle, 74 Ga. App. 524 (40 SE2d 405); 65 CJS 904, § 188. I am surprised to learn from five of my associates that they do not understand this to be the law. This would also come as somewhat of a shock to Mr. Chitty, Blackstone and Lord Coke if they were still alive. I am sure they would be amazed at the liberality of common-law pleading in their day compared to our present system.
The petition contains a general allegation of negligence against the operators of the drag strip in that they failed to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises of the strip safe for spectators who had paid an admission fee collected by these defendants. Five members of the court have held as a matter of law that these defendants have not failed to keep the premises safe for spectators, i.e., there was no unreasonable risk of harm; they are joined in their judgment by two other members of the court who hold as a matter of law that the premises are so unsafe that the plaintiff is barred from recovery under the doctrine of assumption of risk. It has been said that the life of the law is logic. The plaintiff in this case will probably have a difficult time understanding this maxim. As to my views on negligence as to invitees and assumption of risk see Kreiss v. Allatoona Landing, Inc., 108 Ga. App. 427, 438-442 (133 SE2d 602).
It is interesting to note that while the plaintiff’s petition is composed of only five and one-half typewritten pages, the majority opinion labors for eighteen typewritten pages drawing inference after inference and construction after construction to arrive at the conclusion that the plaintiff has failed to allege a cause of action in negligence as against a general demurrer. While special demurrers were filed but not passed upon by the trial judge, the effect of what the majority opinion has done is to hurl ex mero motu one special demurrer after another at the petition.
Two judges who fail to join with the other five on the latter opinion, rely on Tatum v. Clemones, 105 Ga. App. 221 (124 SE2d 425) which holds as a matter of law that the plaintiff had assumed the risk by viewing a race from an unprotected *515place. In my opinion, this case and others like it should be overruled. They seek as a matter of law to brand anyone with gall enough to purchase a ticket to observe a drag race on a public strip as an outlaw or leper for whom the law will provide no remedy. Under this theory reasonable men cannot differ that a spectator (business invitee) in attending these races assumes all danger, whether known or unknown and whether the proprietor exposes him to it reasonably or unreasonably. Apparently the great social evil of auto racing is not its operation by one as a business for profit but the witnessing of it for pleasure.
In the latter part of 1964, the State Bar of Georgia conducted a survey on the question of whether our rules of pleading and practice should be simplified. The vote was overwhelming in the affirmative (for 2565—against 287). A bill is now pending before the Georgia General Assembly that will exhaustively modernize civil pleading and practice rules in the trial courts of this State. The keystone of these rules is that “All pleadings shall be so construed as to do substantial justice.” They seek to assure an adjudication on the merits rather than on myopic technicalities of pleadings.
If anyone has any doubts as to the need of this proposed legislation, let him read the opinions in this case.