Court Opinion

ID: 9586635
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:13:32.055468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:46.156937
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Counsel for the defendant expresses great dissatisfaction in his motion for rehearing because he contends that this court misstated his contentions at the beginning of the second division of the opinion. He contends that he relies on wilful misconduct as a defense and that he has so relied throughout the entire case. However, the misconduct about which he complained in his brief, in his oral argument, and in his motion to rehear is not the misconduct of the claimant but the misconduct of a third person. Code § 114-105 relating to misconduct as a defense provides in part as follows: “No compensation shall be allowed for an injury or death due to the employee’s wilful misconduct, including intentionally self-inflicted injury, or growing out of his attempt to injure another.” Pinkerton National Detective Agency v. Walker, 157 Ga. 548 (122 S. E. 202, 35 *158A. L. R. 557) contains the following language: “The fact that the injury is the result of the wilful or criminal assault of a third person, and the employee is guilty of no misconduct, does not prevent the killing from being accidental within the meaning of the workmen’s compensation act.” In view of this law, with which we thought counsel for the defense was familiar, we concluded that he was not relying on wilful misconduct as a defense.
Complaint is made in the motion to rehear that the court’s analysis of the course of employment in the operation of an automobile consists of starting it, guiding it, controlling its speed, and stopping it. This is referred to as pure sophistry. The principal objection to this analysis of the operation of an automobile seems to be that it includes stopping it. However, we are satisfied with our entire analysis of the operation of an automobile, including the obnoxious element of stopping it, since it is difficult for us, enshrouded as we are in our cloud of sophistry, to envision automobiles in continuous operation. We understand the contention of movant to be that the claimant, who admittedly was in the course of his employment while riding in the automobile, is nevertheless not entitled to compensation because the act of the third person in stopping the automobile was committed by reason of a motive personal to himself. In view of the authorities cited in the second division of our opinion together with the case herein cited, we wonder if the position of counsel for the movant is not itself slightly tainted with sophistry.
The motion to rehear also contains the following statement: “We asked for very little in this case. We do not even ask for justice or equity. All we ask for is that the record in this case be given the construction that it demands.” Accordingly, all that has been asked for and more has been granted. The construction demanded by the record has been given the case. The defendant has received justice, a factor obviously not desired by his counsel. Counsel’s opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, this is a court of law which cannot grant equitable relief, whether desired or not.