Court Opinion

ID: 9583880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:42:52.219681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:04:57.859309
License: Public Domain

*371Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
In seeking the intent of the legislative enactment where a “word or phrase is capable of more than one meaning,” we must “take one that leads to a just and desirable result.” Georgia Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Joiner, 177 Ga. App. 233 (339 SE2d 284) (1985). Courts must be just before being generous. “[Stability must give way to justice . . . .” Hall v. Hopper, 234 Ga. 625, 632 (216 SE2d 839) (1975). Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
“[W]hen literal interpretation would lead to absurd or mischievous consequences or thwart manifest purpose,” we do not follow the exact letter of the law. Clark v. Murray, 141 Kan. 533 (41 P2d 1042) (1935). Being overzealous in literalism, while ignoring the spirit of the law, is at best unwise. “ ‘Letter-of-the-law pecksniffery’ is a juridical sin.” Lowe v. Payne, 130 Ga. App. 337 (203 SE2d 309) (1973).
OCGA § 34-9-260 (1) and subsection (3) of OCGA § 34-9-260 must be read in pari materia. Without citing any case law, the majority opinion in effect holds that a part-time employee should receive the same compensation benefits as a full-time employee, which cannot be the law. I would adopt the holding in Brisendine v. Skousen Bros., 48 Ariz. 416 (62 P2d 326, 330) (1936): “For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the compensation of an employee who has been employed for a period of more than one month, but whose employment, by its nature and the terms thereof, is not for a fixed number of hours per day, week nor month, but intermittent in its character, is entitled to compensation only on the basis of the wages actually earned during the month.”
I concur fully in the dissenting opinion of Presiding Judge Birdsong and express these additional thoughts, as the judgment of the trial court in this instance should be reversed.