Court Opinion

ID: 9575213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:12:26.719292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:05.641211
License: Public Domain

Birdsong, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
Inasmuch as I conclude that the “issue of fact” in this case as expounded by the majority is more in the realm of conjecture than based in reality, I must respectfully enter my dissent in this “don’t look and fall” case.
The duty of care owed by a patron to his invitee is the same duty of care in keeping premises safe which a master owes to his servant. Two elements must exist in order for an invitee to recover for a proprietor’s negligent failure to maintain safe premises: (1) fault on the part of the proprietor; and (2) ignorance of the danger on the part of the invitee. This test is recognized and accepted by the majority. The basis of the proprietor’s liability thus is founded in his superior knowledge. If the invitee knows of the condition or hazard, there is no duty on the part of the proprietor to warn him and there is no liability for resulting injury because the invitee has as much knowledge as the proprietor. By voluntarily acting in view of that knowledge, the invitee assumes the risk and dangers incident to the known condition. Tect Constr. Co. v. Frymyer, 146 Ga. App. 300, 302 (246 SE2d 334). The facts of this case reflect that Mrs. Bell had just a few minutes earlier and notwithstanding its uniform color with the underlying asphalt admittedly had seen the speed breaker and in deference to its impeding purpose, slowed down as she drove over it, and even remembered feeling the bump when she drove over it. A few minutes later she walked directly past (and stepped over) the same raised speed breaker without difficulty. Then a few moments later she walked a second time alongside the breaker to its juncture with the curb, looked down to ascertain her footing as she stepped up on the curb, and yet this third time neglected to compensate in her stepping for what she had twice before seen and for which she had already compensated. She seeks now to shift her own negligence on this third *671crossing manifested by her failure to step high enough to clear the elevation of the breaker as she crossed it to the host, Abercorn. We cannot help but conclude that Mrs. Bell had as much knowledge of the speed breaker as did Abercorn Toyota. It is to absolutely ignore the facts to conclude that Mrs. Bell might not have seen or even been aware that the speed breaker presented a slight impediment to walking just because she crossed the uniformly sized and shaped and colored impediment at a point a few feet removed from the point she had twice before crossed over with full knowledge of its presence, thus excusing her from exercising ordinary care to avoid that which occurred, tripping over the raised breaker. I would conclude that Mrs. Bell’s knowledge was the equal of that of Abercorn Toyota; therefore, Mrs. Bell has failed to show a right to recover. Backer v. Pizza Inn, 162 Ga. App. 682, 683 (292 SE2d 562).
Mrs. Bell seeks to avoid the consequences of her own negligence by arguing there were no special markings on the breaker such as being painted a different color nor was there a warning about the dangers of the breaker. As the facts show, however, there is no real dispute that Mrs. Bell was well aware of the presence of the breaker and that she simply failed to observe what was fully observable and apparent. Moreover, we can find no requirement that a proprietor paint something as commonplace and readily observable as a breaker a different color. See Knight v. Western Intl. Hotels, 172 Ga. App. 630, 632 (323 SE2d 914); Angel v. Varsity, 113 Ga. App. 507, 508 (148 SE2d 451). Likewise, Mrs. Bell sought to show that she was distracted by the attractive displays in Abercorn’s display window. The rationale of distraction cases operates when the proprietor sets up a distraction which so diverts the customer’s attention as to be the proximate cause of the injury by what otherwise might well be a patent and safe appurtenance. Jackson Atlantic v. Wright, 129 Ga. App. 857, 859 (201 SE2d 634). The key inquiry is whether the window so distracted Mrs. Bell that the diversion caused her not to remember or to take precaution for that which admittedly she had already seen. The facts belie the contention. Mrs. Bell admits she looked down (and away from the window) to step up to the sidewalk as she approached the curb. Thus, it is manifest the distraction of the attractive window was not that which caused her injury. Wright v. Piggly Wiggly Southern, 164 Ga. App. 293 (297 SE2d 75).
Aside from ignoring the patently demanded conclusion that Mrs. Bell was equally as aware of the presence of the speed breaker as was Abercorn, thus eliminating superior knowledge by Abercorn and ignorance by Bell, the requirement placed upon Abercorn to paint the breaker (a practice apparently not uniformly observed) or to place some sort of warning of an otherwise clearly discernible and observable hazard for all invitees, in effect makes Abercorn (as well as all *672similar merchants) insurers of their invitees. The implication is that if there is even the slightest of hazards, regardless of how apparent to the casual observer, if the hazard (and thus all hazards known or unknown) is not especially called to the attention of the invitee, the host insures the safety of the invitee and only because of the existence of the hazard. According to the majority, its awareness to the invitee can always be made a question of fact for the jury. I am not willing to go so far as to find a question of fact where none exists or to place a burden on a merchant that may be impossible to meet.
Decided July 11, 1985
Rehearing denied July 31, 1985
R. Wade Gastin, for appellant.
Joseph P. Brennan, Joseph A. Mulherin, for appellee.
Moreover, the result reached by the majority not only ignores, but emasculates, the law of summary judgment. While it is true that issues of negligence normally are for the jury, where the facts are inescapable that the injured party ignored her own safety by failing to use even before she had exercised appropriate caution, the trial court was presented with facts that authorized and even demanded resolution of the controversy by means of summary judgment. See Browning v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 173 Ga. App. 898, 900 (328 SE2d 580); Wakefiled v. A. R. Winter Co., 121 Ga. App. 259, 260 (174 SE2d 178).
Accordingly, I would conclude there were no genuine issues of fact and the trial court correctly granted summary judgment to Abercorn.
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen, Judge Sognier and Judge Beasley join in this dissent.