Court Opinion

ID: 9591251
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:03:12.612056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:08.748958
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
The Civil Practice Act provides that it “shall be construed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” OCGA § 9-11-1. The Constitution of Georgia of 1983 itself embraces this theme in requiring that uniform court rules and record-keeping rules be adopted “which shall provide for the speedy, efficient, and inexpensive resolution of disputes and prosecutions.” Art. VI, Sec. IX, Par. I. The benches and bars throughout the country are working on what has become familiar as “reducing court costs and delay.” Our own State Bar in 1984 created a Special Committee to Reduce Court Costs and Delay. The American Bar Association Action Commission to Reduce Court Costs and Delay, created in 1979, published its findings and recommendations in 1984 in a report entitled “Attacking Litigation Costs and Delay.” Its Executive Summary states: “Excessive delay and costs in our civil courts must be controlled; they can be controlled; ...” Last year also, the General Assembly created by resolution the Governor’s Judicial Process Review Commission based, in part, on the constitution’s above-stated mandate. Ga. L. 1984, p. 980.
In keeping with the philosophy thus espoused more urgently of late, and in express compliance with the Civil Practice Act’s stated purpose, we should construe and apply the laws to achieve these results, in keeping with the fundamental precepts of due process.
Judge Birdsong for the majority gives the heart of what is in issue here when he writes: “the very acts of negligence upon which liability is to attach have already been litigated with an adverse result.” Or, I would add, could have been so litigated.
The railroad’s employee, a flagman who was standing on the train and got thrown off and injured in the collision, brought the first suit, alleging that the collision was due to Norris’ negligence and that his employer was liable based on respondeat superior. Norris, of course, *394was a witness for his employer. The railroad’s employee won, thus establishing as a matter of law that Norris was found negligent. That was the substantive basis, the issue tried.1 One of the defenses of Norris’ employer, who admitted that Norris was its agent and was acting within the scope of his employment, was that the plaintiff flagman’s injuries, if any, were caused by his own negligence. Although it did not defend on the ground that a third party, such as the employer railroad by other of . its employees, was negligent, this issue would have been before the jury because it had to decide that Norris alone was negligent and caused the collision. His employer, who was responsible for his acts, did not so contend.
Although the flagman did not sue Norris but only his employer based on Norris’ alleged negligence, Norris obviously could have become a party to the suit if he or his employer believed himself blameless and that the collision was due to the flagman’s or the railroad’s negligence. OCGA § 9-11-19 (a) (2): “A person who is subject to service of process shall be joined as a party in the action if: . . . He claims an interest relating to the subject of the action and is so situated that the disposition of the action in his absence may: (A) As a practical matter impair or impede his ability to protect that interest;2 or (B) Leave any of the persons who are already parties subject to a substantial risk of incurring double, multiple, or otherwise inconsistent obligations by reason of his claimed interest.3 If he has not been so joined, the court shall order that he be made a party . . ,4 If the joined party objects to venue and his joinder would render the venue of the action improper, he shall be dismissed from the action.”5 (Emphasis supplied.)
The goal of judicially trying the issues only once and for all is further achieved by the stated objective underlying the device of permissive joinder in OCGA § 9-11-20 (a): “All persons may join in one action as plaintiffs if they assert any right to relief jointly, severally, or in the alternative in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any *395question of law or fact common to all of them will arise in the action. All persons may be joined in one action as defendants if there is asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative any right to relief in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question of law or fact common to all of them will arise in the action. A plaintiff or defendant need not be interested in obtaining or defending against all the relief demanded. Judgment may be given for one or more of the plaintiffs according to their respective rights to relief and against one or more of the defendants according to their respective liabilities.” The goal of complete and full disposition is further to be carried out by the use of the procedural instruments of interpleader (OCGA § 9-11-22) and intervention (OCGA § 9-11-24). Note that all of these aim at avoidance of multiple lawsuits, double or multiple liability, and/or inconsistent judgments.
The Norrises now sue the railroad, not its employee, alleging that the “lights and bells” signaling devices were not operating to warn Mr. Norris not to cross the tracks and that the railroad was negligent “in its failure to properly maintain the crossing, in its operations of its locomotive at the crossing at the time of the collision, in its obscuring of a driver’s approaches to the crossing by the leaving of other car or engines on the tracks in close proximity to the crossing, and by such other acts of negligence which shall be shown by the evidence.” While it is true that all of these issues were not raised by Norris’ employer in defending against the suit by the flagman, they could have been, because the suit revolved around the cause of the collision. All of the rights to relief asserted iii these two lawsuits are “arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences” so could have been adjudicated there, “if any question of law or fact common to all of them will arise in the action,” OCGA § 9-11-20 (a), which it clearly did.
Had Norris been added, he could have brought in the employee’s employer, the railroad he now sues, through use of the same procedural tools discussed above. Although one might say, “but the railroad is to be sued in Coweta, not Fulton, County,” the railroad here is arguing that it is bound by the issue determination in Fulton, so it cannot very well state that there would have been no jurisdiction over it to impose the effects of resolution of that issue on it.6 Proper venue, of course, is not to be overlooked, and the Civil Practice Act’s objective of bringing everyone interested in the liabilities arising out of an *396event like a vehicle collision into one suit honors the principles of venue. As pointed out earlier, if the court joins a party who objects because of improper venue, he shall be dismissed from the action. OCGA § 9-11-19 (a) (2) (B). If that occurs, it may be difficult to bind him to the findings of liability/non-liability.
As to Mrs. Norris’ independent cause of action, it is bottomed on the very same negligence which will or will not support his claim. The acts of negligence are the very ones of which her husband complains; they are no more and no less; what is different is her status. The law gives spouses a right to recover loss of consortium damages because they are spouses, not because there are different or additional acts of negligence. Her husband’s negligence, as found by the Fulton jury, should be dispositive as to her. It is not, of course, because the law recognizes hers as a separate and distinct claim, and she is not bound by that trial. Stapleton v. Palmore, 250 Ga. 259 (297 SE2d 270) (1982); Deese v. Parks, 157 Ga. App. 116, 118 (276 SE2d 269) (1981). But she like the others, could have been added in the first suit. See Stapleton, supra. Her right to recover is based solely on the alleged negligence of the railroad towards her husband and is based on that. There are no allegations of negligence towards her, except as she is the injured party’s wife.
The law having provided an opportunity for all parties to be heard by a jury on the question of Mr. Norris’ negligence, which was found to be the cause of the collision and the resulting injuries to the flagman, the question should be settled conclusively. Otherwise the endless litigation of which this is an example lumbers on indefinitely, consuming financial and judicial resources as it goes.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen and Judge Pope join in this special concurrence.

 As distinguished from a case where the employer’s own negligence is alleged, as for example in negligently hiring an incompetent employee. A different issue of liability would arise in such circumstances.

 Such as now being foreclosed from relitigating the issue of his own negligence in causing the collision.

 The flagman was subject to a substantial risk of Norris’ later filing suit against him, claiming the collision was his, not Norris’, fault.

 Thus the flagman’s election not to sue the employee but only the employer would not be dispositive.

 From the record, it appears that the Norrises lived either in Fulton County or in Clayton County at the time the Fulton suit was instituted. Assuming Mr. Norris did not live in Fulton, he apparently does not object to the issues being tried outside the county of his residence, for he has filed the instant suit in Coweta County.

 Of course, if the verdict in Fulton had been against the flagman employee of the railroad, the latter would want to argue that the jury’s finding Norris not negligent did not bind the railroad. That might be true if jurisdiction could not be had by way of consensual joinder or waiver of venue. Such right is guarded by OCGA § 9-11-19 (a).