Court Opinion

ID: 9607106
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:55:29.350735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:37.127642
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
dissenting on rehearing.
After verdict, the evidence is to be construed in such manner as to uphold the decision of the jury if possible. There is testimony in this case that the store manager complained, immediately after the plaintiff was knocked down by children running in the store that "I have watched them play all over my store and it worries me” and that people turned children loose in the store "like a bunch of hogs.” There was also evidence that children were running and playing in the store as the plaintiff entered, and that it was very crowded. There is also evidence that the manager was present on the premises, although he may not have been on the floor at the moment of the accident.
It is the duty of the proprietor, by himself or his employees, to interfere where there is reasonable apprehension of danger to customers and others lawfully on the premises. Great A. & P. Tea Co. v. Cox, 51 Ga. App. 880 (181 SE 788). This involves a question of foreseeability, where there is evidence that the same condition has occurred at a prior point in time. Shockley v. Zayre of Atlanta, Inc., 118 Ga. App. 672 (165 SE2d 179). I believe that whether or not the defendant, through its manager and other employees, should have apprehended danger from children running (they having previously been put on notice that this occurred in the store, and having failed to take effective steps as to this particular incident) in view of the testimony of the manager and two other witnesses that they had seen children running and playing in this manner "quite a few times” before, the factual situation is such that it was for the jury to determine whether the defendant’s employees took the reasonable precautions which an ordinarily prudent person would do under these circumstances and with this knowledge to attempt to control the irresponsible playing of children within the building. The jury found that they did not.
On re-examining the evidence I am convinced that *243the trial court did not err in refusing to direct a verdict, and that this court should not direct that a judgment notwithstanding the verdict be entered.