Court Opinion

ID: 9845156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:16:00.376231+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:53.036441
License: Public Domain

Nichols, Presiding Judge,
dissenting in part. I concur in the judgment of affirmance as to the first two counts of the petition but not as to count 3. A petitioner is permitted to file in one action, in different counts, similar causes of action; or to base his single cause of action on different allegations of facts which caused his injury. Daniels v. Bruce, 102 Ga. App. 434 (116 SE2d 658), and cases cited. Under the majority opinion the third count of the petition is a separate cause of action although based on the exact same facts as the first count and presumably a verdict in the aggregate of the separate prayers of these counts would be authorized if each is treated as a separate cause of action. In McKown v. Great A. & P. Tea Co., 99 Ga. App. 120, 124 (107 SE2d 883), it was pointed out, “Since all slander cases necessarily involve the right of privacy against slander, the right of privacy is involved but the gist of the action is still slander in such cases and not invasion of privacy.” Such case is not in conflict with the holding of the Supreme Court in Pavesich v. New England Life Ins. Co., 122 Ga. 190 (50 SE 68), for while that case involved a two-count petition it apparently contained a single prayer for damages and it was held that the libelous publication also invaded the plaintiff’s right of privacy. It was not held that a separate action would lie for each tort or *34that separate damages could be recovered for the libel and for the invasion of privacy arising from the libelous publication. Moreover, in that case the publication would have constituted an invasion of privacy even if not libelous.