Court Opinion

ID: 9617855
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:02:22.113758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:18.123760
License: Public Domain

Carley, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur fully in Division 2 of the majority opinion. The testimony discussed therein clearly falls outside any recognized exception to the general rule that evidence of other transactions is irrelevant and inadmissible. See generally Gunthorpe v. Daniels, 150 Ga. App. 113 (257 SE2d 199) (1979). I cannot agree, however, that there is a viable basis for distinguishing between the inadmissibility of the evidence concerning other transactions prior and subsequent to Thanksgiving 1983 as is discussed in Division 2 and the evidence concerning other transactions during Thanksgiving of 1983 as is discussed in Division 1.1 must, therefore, respectfully dissent to Division 1.
As support for its holding in Division 1, the majority states that “appellee in the case at bar could scarcely have shown that it was not negligent in preparing the particular turkey in question except by evidence” that none of its other customers who bought pre-cooked turkeys during Thanksgiving of 1983 had ever complained, (p. 835) The majority’s premise is erroneous. It ignores the relevant issue of negli*837gence in this case, the possible defenses available to appellee, and the possibility that appellee had no viable defense. Appellants’ claim was not premised upon appellee’s act of following a negligent process whereby contaminated turkeys were continuously produced, only one of which they happened to buy. Accordingly, appellee’s negligence on other occasions had no initial relevancy to any element of appellants’ case. Compare Central of Ga. R. Co. v. Bernstein, 113 Ga. 175 (38 SE 394) (1901). Appellants’ claim was premised upon allegations that the single pre-cooked turkey that they bought had been negligently prepared. There would be no burden on appellee to produce any evidence whatsoever unless and until appellants had met the initial burden of proving their allegations that appellee had negligently undercooked the particular turkey that they had bought and, that it was as the result of this negligently undercooked turkey that they had contracted salmonella. Either the pre-cooked turkey purchased by appellants was negligently undercooked for salmonella infection or it was not. If appellants were unable to meet their initial evidentiary burden, appellee’s appropriate procedural tactic would be to move for a directed verdict. Assuming, however, that appellants did meet their initial evidentiary burden by producing evidence that the specific precooked turkey sold by appellee had not been subjected to a non-negligent cooking process for salmonella infection, appellee should not be allowed to defend by introducing irrelevant evidence. Appellee’s negligence would lie in failing to subject the particular turkey sold to appellants to a non-negligent cooking process and not in failing to have a non-negligent cooking process for pre-cooked turkeys generally available. Compare City of Brunswick v. Glogauer, 158 Ga. 792, 816 (5) (124 SE 787) (1924) (evidence of non-occurrence of other injuries admissible as relevant to the issue of whether a static condition on realty encountered by the public at large should be deemed dangerous).
Evidence merely that appellee may have had a non-negligent process for cooking turkeys and that no other pre-cooked turkey that appellee ever processed had given rise to similar complaints of undercooking would not be probative of the fact that appellee did not, on this one occasion, negligently undercook the pre-cooked turkey ultimately bought by appellants. See generally Hutchinson Lumber Co. v. Dickerson, 127 Ga. 328 (56 SE 491) (1907). Even assuming that appellee may never have negligently undercooked any other turkey during Thanksgiving of 1983, this would not show that it did not negligently undercook the one in question. The defendant in a negligence action is simply not allowed to show that he performed similar acts in a non-negligent manner or did so without injurious result. See generally Atlanta & West Point R. Co. v. Holcombe, 88 Ga. 9 (13 SE 751) (1891). Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent to Division 1 of the *838majority opinion.
Decided February 19, 1987.
J. Wayne Moulton, for appellants.
William S. Shelfer, Jr., for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen joins in this opinion.