Court Opinion

ID: 9607258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:56:47.778944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:37.800117
License: Public Domain

Duckworth, Chief Justice,
concurring specially. The word “vandalism” means damaging, defacing and destroying property. This is the dictionary meaning and the meaning given it by court decisions including the Court of Appeals in General Accident &c. Assurance Corp. v. Azar, 103 Ga. App. 215 (119 SE2d 82), and the recent case of Bell v. Adams, 111 Ga. App___By expressly limiting actions for damages therein authorized to those resulting from vandalism, the Act (Ga. L. 1956, p. 699; Code Ann. § 105-113) requires the courts to disallow recovery for injuries to the person which are caused by the wilful tort of a minor under seventeen but not as a result of injury to property. More than likely it was the legislative desire to provide by this Act for requiring the parent to pay for damages both to the person and the property resulting from the wilful and wanton torts of their children under age seventeen. It would be unreasonable to hold the parent not liable for the direct assault upon the person yet liable if the assault upon property resulted in the same personal injury. *42But courts have no alternative to accepting the plainly expressed legislative intent to restrict the actionable torts to vandalism, for we are not permitted to speculate as to an unexpressed intent and effectuate it when to do so plainly violates the expressed intent.
There has been raised a question as to the constitutionality of this Act upon the ground that it creates a liability without fault. I would agree if the Act did that, it would be unconstitutional. Buchanan v. Heath, 210 Ga. 410 (80 SE2d 393). But it can not be reasonably asserted that the parent is free from fault when his minor child wilfully injures innocent people. The law confers upon the parent the right to receive all the earnings of his minor child. It places upon him the duty to support his minor child, and it authorizes him to discipline and control the conduct of his child. He is thus lawfully authorized to control the goings and comings of. his child. He does not hold and enjoy these rights and privileges without at the same time and commensurate therewith responsibility for the child’s conduct.
The legislature is to be commended for attempting by this Act to afford protection to neighborhoods and individuals against terrorism by minors whose parents are too indifferent to control them. There is an old law that states who should pay for such damages. Code § 37-113. The parent has the lawful power to punish and control his minor child while the innocent victim has no such power. Therefore, let the parent rather than the victim pay. Perhaps when the parent’s pocketbook is reached by such a law, he will assume his duties of parenthood. I would hope the legislature might amend this law by striking the word “vandalism” therefrom.