Court Opinion

ID: 9607286
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:57:03.440861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:07:23.170392
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Judge,
dissenting. After discussing the facts and the law applicable thereto, the majority reach the conclusion in the present case that “under these allegations it would be a question for a jury to determine whether or not the defendant was negligent in failing to make daily inspections of its premises or, in the absence of such inspections, to warn the plaintiff’s son that it might be dangerous for him to walk through the grass, and it would also be a jury question whether the failure of the defendant to inspect or warn, if negligent, was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s son’s injuries.” The majority then attempt to distinguish the case of Jones v. West End Theater Co., 94 Ga. App. 299 (94 SE2d 135) on the ground that that case turned “chiefly, if not entirely” on the failure of the plaintiff in that case to allege that the beer can on which he stepped had been on the ground a sufficient length of time to afford constructive notice of its presence. This is a correct statement, but it does not distinguish that case from the present one for the veiy simple reason that the identical elements upon which the court in the present case sustains the cause of action were also present in Jones v. West End Theater Co. In the West End case, paragraph 29 of the amended petition, which was a part of both counts, alleged: “Petitioner shows that defendant’s failure to provide safe stairs, paths, walkways or other designated routes *503or accessways over which your petitioner might walk from the concession stand in safety, coupled with defendant’s failure to warn your petitioner of the likelihood of foreign matter upon the floor or pavement of the theater area, constituted a total disregard of the rights of your petitioner, and other persons invited to the said theater and its concession stand, and was negligence.”
The grounds of negligence in paragraph 30 of the petition as amended (both counts) were: “(c) In failing to adequately light the theater area so that your petitioner could walk between the parked cars and up and down the terraces and/or parking ramps in safety, (d) In failing to provide adequate lights along the terrace or parking ramp areas to delineate the variances in the elevations of the individual terraces and/or parking ramps, (e) In failing to inspect the area over which invitees of the theater would likely walk to and from the concession stand and discover and remove articles which would likely cause injury when stepped upon, (f) In failing to warn your petitioner of the presence of said empty beer can, and/or to warn of the likelihood of such an obstacle, which while traversing the darkened and unusually constructed area of the theater would cause injury or harm to invitees thereof.”
Thus, we have in the Jones v. West End Theater Co. case (1) the custom of throwing things on the premises; (2) the failure to make inspections; and, (3) a failure to warn of the probable presence of beer cans, etc., because of the custom of which the defendant had knowledge. In the Jones case, it was poor lighting which hid the article, and in the present case, it was the tall grass which hid the article. Jones v. West End Theater Co. is authority for the fact that these allegations, in the absence of an allegation showing how long the item causing the injury was present, are insufficient to set forth a cause of action. This case not being distinguishable for the reasons given by the majority, it is my opinion that it should either be followed or overruled, and not being overruled, it is binding as authority.
I am authorized to state that Felton, C. J., concurs in this dissent.