Court Opinion

ID: 9883531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:46:00.673469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:24.768182
License: Public Domain

Bell, Judge,
dissenting. The evidence in this case bearing upon the negligence of the defendant is so clear and indisputable as to demand as a matter of law a finding by the jury of liability. Accordingly, a verdict for the plaintiff in some amount was demanded as a matter of law.
In this case only one witness, the defendant himself, called *170for purposes of cross-examination, presented any testimony bearing upon the question of negligence in the homicide of the child. Casting the extraneous portions aside, the pertinent testimony shows simply and clearly that the defendant, at the time he began backing his car, knew there were eight children playing in the yard or across the street and that they had been playing around his parked car. Notwithstanding this knowledge, the defendant got into his car, saw that some children, were playing across the street but did not count them to see that all were there, merely looked through his rear window and proceeded to back his car turning sharply to the left, struck and fatally injured his grandchild after backing only six feet. In describing this backing up procedure, the defendant testified that “the road there [where he was backing up] was dry and the children had been playing there all up and down in the lane where there was sand, and they had created some little unlevelness in the sand, and when I backed up I felt the -wheel run — I thought it was on that sand — .” This testimony demonstrates conclusively that the defendant knew that the children had been playing around his car and in the very spot where he was backing. Under these circumstances he should have foreseen that a child might be in the path of his car, and it was his duty to ascertain this fact. As a matter of law he was negligent in not doing so.
Under numerous decisions of our court, a child 5 years and 1 week old, as a matter of law, is too young to be chargeable with the failure to exercise due care for his own safety, or with any contributory negligence. Riggs v. Watson, 77 Ga. App. 62, 63 (47 S. E. 2d 900). “Motorists owe very young children a greater duty than they owe to normal adults.” Christian v. Smith, 78 Ga. App. 603, 606 (51 S. E. 2d 857). While the verdict of the jury is conclusive as to disputed questions of fact, and the courts must not usurp this exclusive function, nevertheless the determination of matters of law is equally the exclusive duty of the courts and should not be submitted for decision to the jury. Here the facts show as a matter of law that there was negligence, and a verdict for the plaintiff in some amount was demanded.
Presiding Judge Townsend expresses agreement with this dissent, and has asked that he be recorded as concurring with it.