Court Opinion

ID: 9561630
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:13:13.105183+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:04.940904
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Divisions 1 and 3 and 4 but not entirely in Division 2.
Count 2 did not allege “negligent publication of libel” as such which, I agree, would fail as a matter of law if, as here, the publication was not libelous. That count alleged merely that the publication was false and was made recklessly, with a total indifference to the consequences, without verification of its truth, and without exercising ordinary standards “of common sense,” apparently meaning the ordinary standard of care as set out in OCGA § 51-1-2.1
Thus, Count 2 was brought under the general tort statutes, OCGA §§ 51-1-1 and 51-1-6. See also OCGA § 51-1-8. Whether a claim would lie for negligent publication by a newspaper of a false statement about a private person which is not libelous, however, is not before us. That is because plaintiff has not pursued that question. She has narrowed her claim of simple negligence by asserting that it relates to “negligent publication of libel,” both in her enumeration of error and in the summary judgment documents she submitted to the trial court. This is confirmed by the cases on which she relies, Triangle Publications v. Chumley, 253 Ga. 179 (317 SE2d 534) (1984), and Diamond v. American Family Corp., 186 Ga. App. 681, 682 (1) (368 SE2d 350) (1988).
It is not disputed that the statement was untrue, and defendant’s admission that it has a duty to publish truth is evidenced by the next-day correction. Ordinarily, breach of a legal duty which proximately causes damages is actionable. OCGA § 51-1-6. But we cannot enlarge appellant’s enumeration. Fortson v. Cotton States Mut. Ins. Co., 168 Ga. App. 155, 158 (3) (308 SE2d 382) (1983). Nor can we rule on a point where no ruling was solicited from, or made by, the trial court. Ga. Retail Assn. v. Ga. Public Svc. Comm., 165 Ga. App. 208, 209 (300 SE2d 544) (1983).
Having concluded that the publishing of an obituary when the person is alive is not libelous, negligent publication of what plaintiff insists is libel disintegrates as a cause of action.
*606Decided February 15, 1989
Rehearing denied March 6, 1989
Adele Grubbs, for appellant.
Roy E. Barnes, Albert G. Norman, Jr., Bruce P. Brown, for appellee.

 Pleadings are to be liberally construed. OCGA § 9-11-8 (f); Plank v. Bourdon, 173 Ga. App. 391, 393 (1) (326 SE2d 571) (1985).