Court Opinion

ID: 9580348
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:04:18.450995+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:13.745207
License: Public Domain

Smith, Judge,
concurring in judgment.
I concur in the judgment because appellants failed to provide the jury, through expert medical opinion, with a standard of reasonable care and skill upon which they could have a finding of negligence. Pilgrim v. Landham, 63 Ga. App. 451, 455 (11 SE2d 420) (1940). However, I must reject the notion expressed in the majority opinion that "[ejvidence of practice in the Atlanta or Fulton County area is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement that the expert base his opinion on the practice and care in the medical profession generally.” While the majority correctly cites Murphy v. Little, 112 Ga. App. 517 (145 SE2d 760) (1965), for the proposition that "[i]n Georgia the reasonable degree of care and skill prescribed in the Code for the practice of medicine is not that ordinarily employed by the profession in the immediate locality, but' *560is that employed by the profession generally,” it completely disregards another, equally well-settled rule also set forth in that case. "In determining what is reasonable care and skill under the circumstances, it is the prerogative of the jury to consider what is the degree of care and skill employed by the profession in the locality or community where the action arose.” Ibid. See also Kuttner v. Swanson, 59 Ga. App. 818, 820. (2 SE2d 230) (1939). Although the majority reaches the proper result in this case, it does so on the basis of a proposition which I do not believe is the law of this state. I, therefore, concur in the judgment only.