Court Opinion

ID: 9851073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:07:02.0694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:48.243589
License: Public Domain

Blackburn, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
As I cannot agree that Wanda Chatham was in any way acting for the benefit of Vincent, Chorey, Taylor & Feil, P.C. (Vincent, Chorey) at the time she collided with Dannice Clark, I must respectfully dissent from the opinion of the majority.
Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.
Matjoulis v. Integon Gen. Ins. Corp., 226 Ga. App. 459 (1) (486 SE2d 684) (1997).
So viewed, the record reveals that at the time of the collision, both Marsha Eggert and Wanda Chatham, who were employed by Vincent, Chorey, had already accepted employment with Vincent, Berg, Stalzer & Menendez, P.C. (Vincent, Berg), a new law firm established by several lawyers who were leaving Vincent, Chorey. In her affidavit, Marsha Eggert avers that she asked Chatham to do a favor for Vincent, Berg (their future employer) in connection with telephone service. Specifically, Eggert states that she asked Chat-ham to deliver a check to BellSouth Communications on behalf of Vincent, Berg. Her affidavit was given on April 3,1998. Eggert began *237her employment with Vincent, Berg on May 6, 1998. Eggert’s affidavit conflicts with the interrogatory answers of Vincent, Berg, described below, in which it contends that no one asked Chatham to deliver the telephone company deposit.
While performing her task, Chatham rear-ended Clark’s car. All of the evidence in this case establishes that Chatham was performing a favor for a co-worker and Vincent, Berg. Marsha Eggert stated, “I asked Ms. Chatham if she would be willing to do a favor for [Vincent, Berg].”
In its answers to Clark’s interrogatories, Vincent, Berg indicated:
Ms. Chatham had volunteered to deliver a check to Bell-South Communications which represented a deposit for the establishment of [Vincent, Berg’s] phone service for its new office. At the time of the incident, Ms. Chatham was on her way to BellSouth Communications [for Vincent, Berg]. Nobody asked Ms. Chatham to perform this task. Instead, Ms. Chatham volunteered to do so upon learning from Barrie Boyd and Marsha Eggert that [Vincent, Berg’s] deposit check needed to be delivered to BellSouth.
Clark subsequently sued Vincent, Chorey and Vincent, Berg under the doctrine of respondeat superior.
The following facts are undisputed: (1) Chatham and Eggert were employed by Vincent, Chorey at the time of the accident; (2) Vincent, Berg had been incorporated prior to the time of the accident, although it had not officially opened for business; (3) Chatham and Eggert had accepted future employment with Vincent, Berg at the time of the accident; (4) the favor performed by Chatham was for the benefit of Vincent, Berg, not Vincent, Chorey; and (5) less than one month after the accident, Chatham and Eggert began working for Vincent, Berg.
Our Code states that every person shall be liable for torts committed by his servant by his command or in the prosecution and within the scope of his business. OCGA § 51-2-2. But, our appellate courts have followed a long line of authorities citing the general rule that in determining the liability of the master for the negligent or wilful acts of a servant, the test of liability is, not whether the act was done during the existence of the employment, but whether it was done within the scope of the actual transaction of the master’s business for accomplishing the ends of his employment.
*238(Punctuation omitted.) Wittig v. Spa Lady, Inc., 182 Ga. App. 689, 690 (356 SE2d 665) (1987).
In this case, it is clear that Chatham was not acting on Vincent, Chorey’s behalf at the time of the accident. To the contrary, she was performing a favor which would directly benefit a competitor of Vincent, Chorey with whom she had already accepted employment. This competitor, Vincent, Berg, was an existing corporation at the time of the accident, even though the employees it had hired had not yet left Vincent, Chorey. It was solely for the benefit of Vincent, Berg that Chatham was acting.
If a servant steps aside from his master’s business to do an act entirely disconnected from it, and injury to another results from a doing of the act, the servant may be liable, but the master is not liable. Thus, a tort committed by a servant while engaged in the master’s business is not necessarily a tort committed in the course of his employment and in the prosecution of the master’s business. Where the tort of an employee is wholly personal to himself, it is not within the scope of his employment, and the master is not liable.
(Citations omitted.) Id. at 690.
In this case, Chatham performed a favor to benefit her future employer, Vincent, Berg. The trial court did not err in granting summary judgment to Chorey, Taylor & Feil, PC. (Chorey, Taylor). The court necessarily found that Chatham’s act neither related to the operations of Vincent, Chorey in any way nor benefited that firm. Chatham’s actions were purely personal with regard to Vincent, Chorey, if not Vincent, Berg. No appeal has been taken from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Vincent, Berg, the corporation for which Chatham was acting and from which she had accepted employment at the time of the subject collision, and we do not consider the validity of that ruling here. Under the majority’s holding, Chorey, Taylor could be liable in a case in which Vincent, Berg, the corporation whose check was being delivered, has been held not liable as a matter of law. Vincent, Chorey cannot be held liable for Chatham’s act under the doctrine of respondeat superior under the facts of this case. Id.
Andrews v. Norvell, 65 Ga. App. 241 (15 SE2d 808) (1941), which the majority cites to support its argument, does not change this result. In Andrews, the plaintiff sued the employer of a bartender who played a practical joke on him and induced him to sit on a certain stool in the bar covered with a caustic compound. As this practical joke was performed while completing the exact duties for which the bartender was hired, namely greeting customers and serving *239drinks, this Court concluded that the bartender’s employer could be held responsible for its employee’s act under the doctrine of respondeat superior. Here, in direct contrast, Chatham was performing an act for an entirely separate corporation which related in no way to her duties as an employee of Vincent, Chorey. Andrews has no bearing on the outcome of this case.
Decided September 9, 1999
Reconsideration denied October 5, 1999
Rajan Bhandari, for appellant.
Carr, Tabb & Pope, Eric N. Van De Water, for appellee.
The majority also relies on paragraph 6 of an affidavit prepared and submitted by Vincent, Berg in which its employee Eggert, states:
As part of its preparations to commence business, [Vincent, Berg] needed to establish phone services at its new offices. I asked Ms. Chatham if she would be willing to do a favor for [Vincent, Berg], I did this in my capacity as an employee of Vincent, Chorey. This favor involved delivering a check to BellSouth for the establishment of phone service for [Vincent, Berg]. Ms. Chatham volunteered to take the check to BellSouth.
(Emphasis supplied.)
Specifically, the majority focuses on Eggert’s statement that she was acting in her capacity as a Vincent, Chorey employee when the favor was requested. However, this statement must be viewed in context. Eggert and Chatham had each already accepted employment with Vincent, Berg at the time of this incident. There is no evidence that any agent of Vincent, Chorey either requested or ratified Eggert’s actions in this case, or that there was any benefit to Vincent, Chorey from the delivery. Moreover, Eggert’s employment with Vincent, Chorey at the time of the accident is not controlling. Irrespective of Eggert’s employment with Vincent, Chorey, Chatham was performing a personal favor exclusively for the benefit of her future employer, Vincent, Berg, and, as discussed above, this fact precludes a finding of any liability by Vincent, Chorey.
The trial court properly granted summary judgment to Vincent, Chorey.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Johnson and Presiding Judge Pope join in this dissent.