Court Opinion

ID: 9589579
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:46:31.088788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:31.489245
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting. I would vote to reverse the trial court on the charge to the jury as set forth in enumerations of error 21 and 22 which are dealt with in Headnote 4 of the majority opinion herein.
This lawsuit proceeded against two defendants, the owner and the driver of the automobile alleged to have caused the injuries. The plaintiff was entitled to a recovery against the driver alone if the evidence showed said defendant-driver committed negligence which was the proximate cause of the injuries; and the jury could have exonerated the owner-defendant through a finding of lack of agency as to the driver.
But the trial court charged the jury in such fashion as to impress the jury that no recovery could be had against the driver of the vehicle unless a recovery was also warranted against the owner of the vehicle by proof of agency. This charge is recited in Headnote 4 of the majority opinion.
The appellee makes the contention in his brief that this instruction to the jury by the trial court was harmless in that the trial court qualified same by the preface “in this respect,” meaning, in respect to that part of the charge on the question of agency and on the question of finding both the owner-defendant and driver-defendant liable. But, no such qualification appears in the charge as reported in the record at page 297, for there the trial court charged as follows:
“The plaintiff contends that she is entitled to have and receive at your hands a verdict compensating her for the value of the life of her son. The defendant replies to that contention and said that the defendants were not negligent in any way or in any manner as set out in her writ and that they are not responsible or liable for any damages she claims to have sustained and says that she is not entitled to have and receive a verdict at your hand.
*835“She is not entitled to have and receive a verdict at your hand unless it appears that she has been damaged in the manner contended by her in this suit and before the plaintiff would be entitled to have and receive compensation for these damages, it must appear from a consideration of the evidence on the trial of the case that this defendant’s agent or servant failed to exercise ordinary care and diligence and by such failure to exercise such care and ordinary diligence, the plaintiff was damaged.”
The above portion of the charge was error in that the driver could have been found liable irrespective of whether or not he was “defendant’s agent or servant” and no doubt this compounded the impact received by the jury when added to the other language in the charge.
But the majority opinion asserts that appellant did not comply with the requirements of Code Ann. § 70-207 (Ga. L. 1965, pp. 18, 31; 1966, pp. 493, 498; 1968, pp. 1072, 1078) in respect to objecting to the charges given before the jury returned its verdict. Appellant did make the following objection: “Plaintiff objects to the charge of the court on the question of agency and liability under the doctrine of agency on the ground that the charge as given, quoting a portion thereof: ‘That he was not at the time the agent of Mr. Aultman or on the business of Mr. Aultman, you must find in favor of the defendant Aultman.’ The plaintiff excepts to this portion of the charge in that the charge fails to include the legal rule which is in the furtherance of the employer’s business and argumentative exclusion of the rule of law which should appropriately be charged in order not to prejudice the plaintiff.” (Emphasis supplied.) Conceding that this objection was in rather general terms, still I feel that it sufficiently complied with the statutory requirements. Quoting Code Ann. § 70-207, supra, in part: “Opportunity shall be given to make objection out of the hearing of the jury and objection need not be made with the particularity of assignments of error (abolished by this law) and need only be as reasonably definite as the circumstances will permit.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The writer is familiar with the many authorities of this court construing this language, and it appears that a very high degree of specificity is required by such decisions. With those *836decisions I am in disagreement, including Ga. Power Co. v. Maddox, 113 Ga. App. 642 (1) (149 SE2d 393); U. S. Security Warehouse, Inc. v. Tasty Sandwich Co., 115 Ga. App. 764 (1) (156 SE2d 392).
I am in complete disagreement with the holding by this court that “If no error is observed in the charge by trained and astute counsel it is likely that the untrained juror will not be influenced by such charge.” See Dowis v. McCurdy, 109 Ga. App. 488 (136 SE2d 389). Surely, it must be recognized that an attorney who tries a case in court has a multitude of duties to perform, and is at no time relaxed and objective in his consideration of the various matters that claim his attention. Witnesses wish to be allowed to remain at home; witnesses wish to be taken out of turn; witnesses claim they know nothing about the case or anything that would be helpful; opposing counsel brings forth new and novel matters during the trial; rulings are made which completely surprise counsel and require his utmost skill to prevent a dismissal of the case prior to reaching the stage when the jury will decide it. Then, the case reaches its climax when counsel, with the closing argument sums up and tries to marshal all of his strongest points, while at the same time making reply to the strong points advanced by opposing counsel. When he finishes and sits down and the court begins charging the jury, oftentimes the court has finished half of his charge before such counsel grasps the meaning of any sentence the court is giving in charge to the jury. What position then is he in to make objection to the charge of the court? What construction should be placed on that language in the statute which says he need “only be as reasonably definite as the circumstances will permit”?
As to whether or not the jury would be impressed by an erroneous charge of the court when trained counsel might not be impressed, let it be remembered that the jury has had no responsibility whatever for the trial of the case except to listen to the evidence and to the rulings made by the court. When they finally come to that place where the judge charges the jury they are relaxed and alert and are listening to the one high authority, one in whom they have supreme confidence, who is impartial and who is learned in the law and who will instruct them *837in the rules by which they are to make their decision. It is quite likely that they are much more impressed with every word he says than are “trained counsel” and especially trained counsel who has just made a concluding argument and is completely exhausted, mentally and physically.
But, this statute (Code Ann. § 70-207, supra) makes provisions for such circumstances in paragraph (c) thereof as follows: “Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the appellate courts shall consider and review erroneous charges where there has been a substantial error in the charge which was harmful as a matter of law, regardless of whether objection was made hereunder or not.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Thus, no objection whatever need be made as to substantial error, and any error that is not substantial should not be considered as cause for reversal anyway. So, after all, we need be concerned only with “substantial error.”
Time and again this court has refused to consider allegedly erroneous charges to the jury, because counsel did not make proper objections, and a high degree of specificity is required, so much, that it is difficult to understand exactly what is required in an objection to a charge. This court has even held that the objection is not good unless the lawyer goes further and tells the court what language should have been charged to the jury. Ga. Power Co. v. Maddox, 113 Ga. App. 642, supra. This does not seem to comport with or lie in consonance with the language of the statute: “ . . . objection need not be
made with the particularity of assignments of error . . . and need only be as reasonably definite as the circumstances will permit.” This language could mean anything or nothing. What is meant by the term “as the circumstances will permit?” What circumstances? This court, I repeat, has held that the lawyer must even tell the trial court what he should have charged the jury in lieu of the language objected to. Is there a lawyer anywhere who is able to get up after he has tried his case and go over the charge of the jury, excerpt by excerpt, from memory or notes, and then and there tell the court what parts were erroneous, how and wherein they were erroneous, with great specificity, and then tell the court as to each excerpt objected *838to, what should have been charged in lieu thereof? I think not. How long — how many hours — would be consumed at the end of each trial to go through this tedious procedure. And what is the jury doing all of this time — deciding the issues in the case — or merely twiddling its thumbs until the court and counsel finish this procedure, as against the chance the court might wish to call the jury back and charge again on some of the questions alleged to be erroneous. Because after all, a re-charge is the real purpose of making the objections. How confusing is it to the jury to have a re-charge after it has considered the case for an hour or more — not because the jury has requested a re-charge, but because the court wishes to straighten out various errors in the original charge?
We are familiar with the trend of some of our Federal authorities construing their rules on this subject, and we are told that such should be given much weight, as these new rules in Georgia are modeled after the Federal rules. But, at most, the Federal authorities are persuasive, and are not binding on our Georgia courts, and I feel that they are entirely too binding on an attorney who complains of an erroneous charge to the jury. If it is to be the law that new trials should not be granted because of error in the charge, that would be preferable to having the same result reached through holding that the lawyer did not properly make objections to the error and in laying down rules with which he finds it impossible to comply. As to the binding force of Federal decision on this court, I call attention to the manner in which we have dealt with such authority in the past. See Code Ann. § 2-8001 (Const. of 1945); Etowah Heading Co. v. Anderson, 73 Ga. App. 814 (38 SE2d 71); Hertz v. Abrahams, 110 Ga. 707, 718 (36 SE 409, 50 LRA 361); Thompson v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 200 Ga. 216, 222 (39 SE2d 225); Thornton v. Lane, 11 Ga. 459 (4).
I therefore would vote to reverse upon the ground that substantial error was committed which required no objection whatever prior to return of the verdict.