Court Opinion

ID: 9624597
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:10:51.787292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:50.752589
License: Public Domain

Eberhardt, Judge,
concurring specially. As I see it we have conflicting lines of decisions dealing with the situation presented in this case.
As Judge Bell points out in the opinion, the conduct of the agent of the corporate defendant in speaking the abusive language gives rise to a cause of action against the employer only when the language “amounts to slander.”
I cannot reconcile the allowing of this action with the line of cases beginning with Behre v. National Cash Register Co., 100 Ga. 213 (27 SE 986) in which it was held that “A corporation is not liable for damages resulting from the speaking of false, malicious, or defamatory words by one of its agents, even where in uttering such words the speaker was acting for the benefit of the corporation and within the scope of the duties of his agency, unless it affirmatively appears that the agent was expressly directed or authorized by the corporation to speak the words in question.” And see Ozborn v. Woolworth, 106 Ga. 459 (32 SE 581); Southern R. Co. v. Chambers, 126 Ga. 404 (55 SE 37); Jackson v. Atlantic C. L. R. Co., 8 Ga. App. 495 (69 SE 919); Headley v. Maxwell Motor Sales Corp., 25 Ga. App. 26 (1) (102 SE 374); Russell v. Dailey’s, Inc., 58 Ga. App. 641 (1) (199 SE 665); Sinclair Refining Co. v. Meek, 62 Ga. App. 850 (10 SE2d 76); Southern Grocery Stores, Inc. v. Keys, 70 Ga. App. 473 (1) (28 SE2d 581); Cochran v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 72 Ga. App. 458 (34 SE2d 296); Woolf v. Colonial Stores, Inc., 76 Ga. App. 565 (46 SE2d 620) and McKown v. Great A. & P. Tea Co., 99 Ga. App. 120 (1) (107 SE2d 883).
There is, however, another line of decisions beginning with Cole v. Atlanta & West Point R. Co., 102 Ga. 474 (31 SE 107), reviewed in Judge Bell’s opinion, under which the action is allowable.
*592There is no substantial difference in the factual situations presented in the two lines of cases. I can see no difference in the duty of the corporate employer, and there should be no difference in the result. The second line of cases appears to be a strained device to circumvent the first. There is no logical basis for holding the corporate employer liable in one but not in the other. In doing so we simply engage in “double talk.” An honest approach would result in either an overruling of the cases affording corporate immunity in these situations (which is probably preferable) or an overruling of those which by the evasive device impose liability.
But both lines stem from decisions of the Supreme Court. If the overruling is to be done, only that court can do it, and until they do we must continue the march wearing the two faces of Janus.
I am authorized to say that Presiding Judge Bell and Judge Jordan concur in this statement relative to the conflicting positions of the two lines of cases and agree that this is an area in which we need some direction, guidance and help from the Supreme Court.