Court Opinion

ID: 9586169
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:08:00.394659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:44.271526
License: Public Domain

Blackburn, Judge,
concurring specially.
While I concur fully in the majority’s opinion, I write specially to point out that the jury in this case found in favor of the plaintiff despite the fact that the trial court improperly placed a higher burden of proof on him with regard to liability.
[I]t has long been the rule that when a verdict has been returned in favor of the plaintiff, errors in the giving of the charge, in omissions from the charge or in the refusal of requests which go to the matter of liability only are harmless to the plaintiff and afford no ground for reversal at his instance.
Maloy v. Dixon, 127 Ga. App. 151, 155-156 (2) (b) (193 SE2d 19) (1972). In this case, the erroneous charge related only to the issue of liability, not damages. As such, Herr, who received a jury verdict in his favor, was not harmed by the court’s erroneous charge. Marek Interior Systems v. White, 230 Ga. App. 518 (496 SE2d 749) (1998), cited by the dissent, does not change this outcome because there, unlike here, the plaintiff did not receive a verdict in its favor. As such, Marek is distinguishable from this matter.
While it is probably not necessary to overrule the cases cited by the majority, it would clarify the law and reduce future appeals to do *424so. What we really have is a semantic question, as “a reasonable degree of medical certainty,” is that it is “more likely than not” that the condition sought to be proven resulted from the subject incident.
It serves no purpose to reverse the case because the charge imposed a higher burden than the plaintiff actually had as to liability where the jury finds that the higher burden has been met. To do so would be to return the case to the trial court for another jury to determine whether or not the plaintiff can meet the lower burden. The damages award is unaffected by the charge in this case. Hawkins v. Greenberg, 166 Ga. App. 574, 577 (1) (a) (304 SE2d 922) (1983).