Court Opinion

ID: 9854327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:05:20.367318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:01.285420
License: Public Domain

BARNES, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
Because I cannot agree that Home Depot breached no duty owed to Thomas and that the breach of duty was not the proximate cause of Thomas’s injury, I must respectfully dissent. Thomas’s complaint alleged that Home Depot was negligent in the “packaging, storage and in the manner in which it permitted the transporting of tomato cages.” In my view the trial court, the majority, and the special concurrence focus too narrowly on the act committed by the customer transporting the tomato tower in his shopping cart, and not on the general danger created by the sharp points of the tomato tower.
As the majority accurately states, an owner or occupier of land has the duty to exercise ordinary care to keep the premises safe for invitees. OCGA § 51-3-1. Because she was a shopper in Home Depot, Thomas was an invitee, and the only questions that arise are (1) whether Home Depot breached a duty and (2) whether this breach was the cause of Thomas’s injury.
Home Depot failed to protect Thomas from a danger of which it was aware by failing to package the tomato towers in such a manner that the sharp ends would not protrude and injure its customers. The five prior incidents in which Home Depot customers or employees were “punctured,” “stabbed,” or “cut” by the sharp ends of the tomato towers were more than sufficient to put Home Depot on notice of the potential danger arising from the sharp ends of the tomato towers and to require it to take reasonable precautions to protect its customers from this danger.
Moreover, this is a danger recognized in the industry. The record contains an affidavit from an owner of a local nursery attesting to the fact that the danger is well known and that in his nursery tomato towers are not placed in the general retail space, but rather are put in a separate location. Additionally, he stated that because tomato towers are not safe to be loaded in shopping carts, his employees assist customers with loading tomato towers in their vehicles.
By looking only at the particular manner in which Thomas was injured the trial court, the majority, and the special concurrence have focused too narrowly on what our law requires to put an owner or occupier on notice. The law in Georgia does not require that the prior incidents be identical. Under our law,
for a party to be held liable for negligence, it is not necessary that he should have been able to anticipate the particular consequences which ensued. It is sufficient if, in ordinary prudence, he might have foreseen that some injury would *706result from his act or omission, and that consequences of a generally injurious nature might result. [Cit.]
Decided March 30, 2007.
Jay W. Pakchar, for appellant.
Gray, Hedrick & Edenfield, Lloyd B. Hedrick, Jr., Evan R. Mermelstein, for appellee.
Orkin Exterminating Co. v. Carder, 258 Ga. App. 796, 802 (2) (b) (575 SE2d 664) (2002). Therefore, Home Depot was not required to anticipate that customers would place the tomato towers in their shopping carts in such a fashion that other customers would bend over and puncture their eyes on the sharp ends of the tomato towers as Thomas did here. It was only required to anticipate that if it did not take some step to protect its customers from the danger created by the sharp ends of the tomato towers, a customer might be hurt by them.
As for the concern expressed in the special concurrence, our law is clear that if the owner or proprietor has a basis to anticipate that pitchforks, shovels, rakes, hoes, screwdrivers, saws, picks, nails, or any other objects present a danger to customers, it is the duty of the owner or proprietor to “take reasonable precautions to protect the invitee from dangers____” Walker v. Bruhn, 281 Ga. App. 149, 150 (635 SE2d 322) (2006). Therefore, if it becomes reasonably apparent that any of these items present a danger to Home Depot’s customers, then Home Depot is obligated to take reasonable precautions to protect its customers from those apparent dangers.
Moreover, this concern about the burden placed on Home Depot to protect its customers minimizes the local nursery owner’s testimony that only the minimum precautions of placing the cages where customers are not readily injured by them and assisting customers with loading and transporting the tomato cages are sufficient to protect their customers. Further, the special concurrence’s detailed analysis of the prior injuries caused by tomato towers merely underscores how dangerous these tomato towers really are and the many ways in which they can injure Home Depot’s customers.
As Home Depot failed to take any precaution to protect its customers from the sharp ends of the tomato towers, and Thomas was injured by such a sharp end, the evidence was sufficient to at least create a genuine issue of material fact on whether Home Depot’s negligence was the proximate cause of her injury. Therefore, the trial court erred by granting summary judgment to Home Depot.
Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.