Court Opinion

ID: 9589744
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:48:00.399392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:29.958951
License: Public Domain

Quillian, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I can not agree with the conclusion reached by the majority.
First of all it is held: "Even if the child in this case was an invitee, when she undertook an act which went beyond the reason for entering the rest room, she lost that status.” This statement is both erroneous and inapplicable to the present case. Augusta Amusements, Inc. v. Powell, 93 Ga. App. 752 (92 SE2d 720), is not authority for the blanket statement made, for it merely holds: "Such owner’s invitation, and the protection due him thereunder, extend to those portions of the premises necessary for ingress and egress and on parts necessary or incidental to the mutual business or purposes of the invitation; but an invitee who leaves such places for others on the premises not included in the invitation and disconnected with the objects of the invitation is, as to such parts of the premises, a mere licensee.” 93 Ga. App. p.756. A built-in cabinet under a washbasin is not "disconnected with the objects of the invitation. . .”
It should be further observed that the recitation "[i]t would normally be the duty of a parent or other adult to see to it that a child would not be going into a place of obvious danger” is correct as an abstract principle of law. But what relevance does it have to the instant factual *365situation? Are we prepared to hold a bathroom is a place of obvious danger?
Turning to the principal thrust of the opinion that the occurrence in question was not foreseeable, without a doubt this case is a classic example of the precept that a jury should determine whether the defendant might reasonably have anticipated the consequences of its act. On motion for summary judgment, ordinarily issues of negligence, including reasonable foreseeability, assumption of the risk, lack of ordinary care for one’s own safety and comparative negligence are not susceptible of summary adjudication. Malin v. Jaggers, 134 Ga. App. 806 (216 SE2d 666);Lay v. Munford,Inc., 235 Ga. 340 (219 SE2d 416).
In my view, there was not a place of obvious danger but there was a dangerous thing being kept by the defendant. "As to an infant, as in this case, the owner of premises on which a dangerous thing exists may in legal duty be bound to use a greater quantum of precaution in behalf of such infant licensee than he would in behalf of an adult invited guest. The sum of the whole matter is included in the expression that 'duties arise out of circumstances.’ ” Cook v. Southern R. Co., 53 Ga. App. 723, 727 (187 SE 274). Accord Augusta Amusements, Inc. v. Powell, 93 Ga. App. 752, 754, supra. The case sub judice is controlled in principle by Glean v. Smith, 116 Ga. App. 111, 113 (156 SE2d 507), which involved a licensee. The gist of the liability sought to be imposed on the homeowner was negligence in permitting a dangerous instrumentality to be in a place where the incautious hands of a child might come in contact with it. The court held that since the defendant was aware of the child’s presence, he would have a duty to anticipate his presence in the playroom and to use ordinary care to avoid injuring him after his presence was known or reasonably should have been anticipated.
Thus, even if the child here was a licensee a jury question would be presented. However, he was not. Thus, the defendant would have a duty to anticipate the presence of children in the bathroom and would be charged with the duty of exercising that degree of care owed a minor invitee.
*366Applying the often stated factors to be considered in construing the evidence on motion for summary judgment, as well as controlling principles of negligence law, I would reverse the order granting summary judgment for the defendant.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen and Judge Smith join in this dissent.