Court Opinion

ID: 9583910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:43:03.193527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:05:40.925034
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur and note the following.
Appellant admits in her brief that “[t]he [alleged] hanger was concealed by the dresses on the rack and no customer or sales clerk could have seen the hanger unless they looked under the dresses on the rack.” Since her complaint is that defendants “negligently failed to inspect and maintain the area of the store where the plaintiff fell,” it is dependent on a legal duty of the proprietor to constantly look under clothing hanging on racks to assure that no objects such as hangers had been placed or had fallen there which might trip an invitee who placed a foot under the hanging clothes. Appellant cites no authority or analogous case which would cover such a theory.
In addition, two significant procedural deficiencies should be pointed out. One is that although plaintiff’s deposition was taken, it is not a part of the record on appeal nor was it part of the evidence considered by the trial court. The trial court pointed out in its summary judgment order that the deposition had never been filed so it could not be considered. Defendants attempted to file it thereafter and subsequently moved the court to vacate its order and reconsider the motion for summary judgment in light of plaintiff’s deposition. But plaintiff filed her notice of appeal, depriving the trial court of jurisdiction to rule on the motion, and the court acknowledged this.
Consequently, both the motion for summary judgment and this appeal proceed on the affidavits of plaintiff and her shopping companion and on the affidavits of the sales associate and the manager, a defendant. Appellant refers to her deposition in her brief and also to the manager’s response to interrogatories, but neither document is before us.
The second procedural deficiency is the appellant’s total failure *701to make specific reference to the record in her brief. She has failed to comply with the clear rule requiring it. Court of Appeals Rule 27 (c) (3) (i). Thus we must hunt the dark forest of the record for the pinpoint shafts of light she relies on. “That vexing and vexatious search for error through an appellate record where no citation is in appellant’s brief is not the function of appellate judges.” Studard v. Dept. of Transp., 219 Ga. App. 643, 646 (3) (466 SE2d 236) (1995).
I am authorized to state that Judge Ruffin joins in this special concurrence.