Court Opinion

ID: 9586279
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:09:01.834491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:27:31.408831
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially.
In this case plaintiff sued Atlanta Transit System, Inc. for damages because of opprobrious, insulting and abusive words spoken to him by the bus driver, which humiliated, mortified and wounded plaintiffs feelings.
The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment and the majority opinion reverses and returns the case for trial by jury.
*358The defendant contended that unless the spoken words were slanderous no recovery could be had by plaintiff. The majority opinion skirts this issue and fails to decide it, and places its reversal on the ground that a jury issue was formed on the question of whether the refusal of the bus driver to give plaintiff a transfer was wrongful. I concur fully in the majority opinion as far as it goes, but I feel that it should go much further.
It was not necessary for plaintiff to allege and prove the spoken words were slanderous in order to recover. Code § 18-204 imposes upon a carrier of passengers the duty of exercising extraordinary diligence to protect the lives and persons of his passengers.
Our appellate courts of Georgia have held repeatedly that this statute includes the duty of protecting the passenger against insult.
In Hames v. Old South Lines, 52 Ga. App. 420 (183 SE 503), it is held that: "A common carrier of passengers is bound to exercise extraordinary diligence to prevent insult, injury, or harm to a passenger transported by it.” citing Code § 18-204. (Emphasis supplied.)
In Wolfe v. Ga. R. & Elec. Co., 2 Ga. App. 499, 500 (3b) (58 SE 899), it is held: "An insult does not necessarily consist in the use of language imputing a crime. It more generally consists in the use of language affecting the social status and personal feelings or the business relations of the person insulted.” In the Wolfecase, supra, the lower court was reversed and the use of insulting language, which did not amount to slander, was held to be actionable, and at p. 502 it is held that the common carrier of passengers has a duty to protect its passengers from insult by other passengers and by the company’s agents, and then uses this language: "A carrier is as much bound to protect and shield from attack the passenger’s feelings as his person, and if it subjects him to the pain and humiliation of being insulted or abused, it is liable for this negligent omission. . .”
In Southeastern Greyhound v. Graham, 69 Ga. App. 621, 624 (26 SE2d 371), it is held: "The unprovoked use of opprobrious words and abusive language by a conductor of a common carrier (or driver of the bus of a common carrier) tending to humiliate the passenger or *359subject him to shame and mortification, gives the passenger a right of action.” For other cases of similar import, see: Ga. So. & Fla. R. Co. v. Ransom, 8 Ga. App. 277 (68 SE 943); L. & N. R. Co. v. Chivers, 11 Ga. App. 236 (75 SE 13); Southern R. Co. v. Huckaba, 14 Ga. App. 311 (80 SE 697); Atlanta & West Point R. v. Condor, 75 Ga. 51 (2); Richmond & D. R. Co. v. Jefferson, 89 Ga. 554, 557 (16 SE 69).
The manner in which the bus driver speaks the words to the passenger may be just as offensive as the actual meaning of the words. If the bus driver speaks in obvious anger, or if he shouts into the face of the passenger, this could amount to insult and be opprobrious, though the words themselves are not slanderous.
I, therefore, respectfully assert that the passenger in this case was entitled to have a jury pass upon the question of whether the words or conduct of the bus driver were such as to humiliate, mortify, or embarass, or wound the feelings of such passenger; and whether the passenger had done anything to justify the words or conduct of the driver.