Court Opinion

ID: 9602159
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:52:15.091276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:01.197384
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
dissenting.
Construing the affidavits, depositions, etc., along with the pleadings on motion for summary judgment of the defendant in favor of the party opposing the motion, we have the following facts and permissible inferences: Pollard ran his business on a corner lot near his home, near the home of his employee Bowden, and across the street from a liquor store. Bowden customarily drank heavily on weekends. The employees normally did not work on weekends, but it was a custom for some of the employees and others in the neighborhood to congregate at this place on Saturdays to talk and drink. Bowden did not know whether Pollard actually knew this was going on or not, but the plaintiffs position is that he had either actual or constructive knowledge. Bowden was instructed by his employer Pollard to report one Saturday morning as there might be some hauling. Pollard had entrusted Bowden with the keys to the truck. Bowden, arriving early with the keys in his pocket, "warmed up” the motor. Pollard, arriving, told him there would be no work after all, and Pollard went away. Bowden is not sure whether at this time he left the keys in the truck or not, but he does swear that within the next few hours some of the habitues arrived, he stayed on, they got liquor from the liquor store and proceeded to get drunk, and then the employee Bowden and his friend drove away together in the truck. Bowden had been instructed not to let anybody else drive the truck, so in this act he was both disobeying orders and was not in the course of his employment. Apparently he customarily had control of this truck. One inference from the evidence arising from the fact that Porter, immediately after the wreck, informed questioners of the house where Bowden could be found, is that Bowden, who does not remember how he got there, was dead drunk and Porter drove him to the house and left him there. This amounts to a conversion on the part of Porter, who then drove away, but there is no clear inference as to any intent to steal. *110Porter then negligently collided with the plaintiffs vehicle.
The case does not hinge on whether or not Porter was a thief, but on whether or not Pollard negligently entrusted the vehicle and keys to Bowden over the weekend when he knew or should have known that Bowden drank heavily over the weekend and when he was drunk was likely to be unreliable. Neither does it rest on any doctrine of respondeat superior, since the owner of a vehicle is not liable under this theory for injuries inflicted by the negligence of an employee who is using the car on a personal mission and against company rules. Don Swann Sales v. Carswell, 124 Ga. App. 141 (183 SE2d 218). But the safekeeping of the truck over the weekend, if in Bowden’s charge, would also be in the course of his employment.
The plaintiff must therefore make a jury question on three issues: negligence of Porter, negligence of Bowden, and negligent entrustment by Pollard. The negligence of Porter is supported by evidence. Bowden might have been negligent (a) in failing to safeguard the vehicle, especially in a "high crime” neighborhood and with the knowledge that there were drunks and criminals in the area, (b) in disobeying instructions, and (c) in leaving the vehicle with keys in it and the motor running (which is the last he remembers of its condition). There may be negligence in leaving a car unattended under conditions where unauthorized persons may cause damage, Buffalo Holding Co., Inc. v. Shores, 124 Ga. App. 868 (186 SE2d 339), but this in and of itself will not bind the employer where the mission is personal to the employee. Id., Headnote (1). So the crucial issue in this case is negligent entrustment, and this depends on whether Pollard knew, as alleged, that Bowden drank heavily on weekends, that drunks congregated around his place of business on Saturdays, and other facts from which he should have anticipated that Bowden would care for it in a competent manner or turn it over to another incompetent to drive. Where circumstantial evidence authorizes an inference that the defendant knows the driver to be incompetent, a case for negligent entrustment may be made. Harris v. Smith, 119 Ga. App. *111306 (167 SE2d 198).
Moreover, if Porter be considered merely as a thief, I consider the annotation in 51 ALR2d 633, 662, § 17 (Thieves) as also supporting my view that a jury question is presented: "On the other hand, if, at the time of the negligence, the criminal act might reasonably have been foreseen, the causal chain is not broken by the intervention of [the larceny].”
I respectfully dissent.