Anderson v. Buice

25 S.E.2d 96, 69 Ga. App. 265, 1943 Ga. App. LEXIS 61

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: April 1, 1943
• Docket: 29819.
• Status: Published

Opinions

Stephens, P. J.

(After stating the facts as above.) The filing of the last amendment, under the ruling on the demurrers to the petition as first amended, opened the petition as last amended to a fresh adjudication. The court then made certain rulings adversely to the defendant in its judgment on the demurrers to the petition as amended, holding, among other things, that the petition as amended set forth a cause of action. An inquiry will now be made as to the correctness of that adjudication. The relief sought by the plaintiff is either for a wilful tort resulting in pain and suffering, in which case it is unnecessary to show the existence of physical injury following the wrongful conduct, or for the negli gence of the defendant causing pain and suffering and consequential mental or physical impairment. The acts on which the complaint is based are substantially as follows: The defendant, in the presence of the plaintiff and on the premises of her husband where she was in charge of his storehouse, abused and cursed certain colored employees of the husband, calling them “God damn sons of bitches.” -To her appeal that he cease his interference with their duties of killing and dressing chickens he announced that he was going to kill the “God damn sons of bitches,” directing her to “get back in the house” and shut her mouth, and adding in a loud and boisterous manner that she “would be hit on the head herself.” Thereupon he went to his home adjoining the storehouse and returned with a shotgun. It is alleged that she “did not give him any cause for threatening her with the shotgun,” but it is not alleged that he did threaten her with the shotgun. During all of this time he was intoxicated. The plaintiff bases her right to recover on the aforementioned conduct of the defendant, which she alleges to have been wilful and malicious; and the effects alleged to have been produced upon her are as follows: The plaintiff, when the defendant had returned to within twenty feet of her, coming towards her with his shotgun, became frightened “on account of the shotgun in the hands of the defendant,” and her fright caused her to faint and become unconscious, in which condition she had to be carried to her home where she was forced to remain under the care of doctors for approximately three months. On account of the defendant’s conduct and her fright “from the appearance of the defendant with said shotgun and in a drunken condition” she suffered a nervous breakdown/ “her nerves” have been injured and completely wrecked, she is so nervous it is almost impossible for her to remain out of bed, and she has suffered excruciating pain and shock, extreme physical and mental inconvenience, and will continue to suffer both mentally and physically during her natural life.

It is alleged, that the plaintiff, at the time of the alleged acts complained of, was in her husband’s storehouse, and that the boys whom the defendant threatened to kill were in the back yard in the rear of the storehouse, engaged in their employment by the plaintiff’s husband to clean and dress chickens; that the defendant “came near the place where these boys were at work, and on the premises of the plaintiffs husband/’ and committed the alleged acts in the presence of the plaintiff; that such conduct was wilful, deliberate, and malicious, and resulted in the injuries alleged. While it is alleged that the plaintiff was in the storehouse of her husband, she was nevertheless where she had a right to be, and as between her and the defendant his acts in coming on the premises amounted to a trespass as against the plaintiff, and his conduct in her presence in threatening to kill the boys, threatening to hit the plaintiff, then going away and coming back in a drunken condition with a shotgun which was exhibited to the plaintiff, were wilful and wanton acts against the right of the plaintiff. While the defendant may not have expressly threatened to use the shotgun in any manner on the plaintiff, and may not have had any such intention, his conduct, while in an intoxicated condition in threatening to hit the plaintiff and shoot the boys in her presence, and in exhibiting the shotgun in her sight, was such conduct as might cause the plaintiff to fear that he would commit bodily harm on her or on the boys, and thus cause her to become frightened. The defendant by such conduct committed a wilful tort on the plaintiff, and she is entitled to recover for the alleged fright and other physical and mental injuries sustained by her which proximately resulted from the defendant’s conduct. Hines v. Evans, 25 Ga. App. 829 (105 S. E. 59); 1 Restatement Law of Torts, 64, § 32. The petition with the amendments set out a cause of action, and the court did not err in overruling the general and special demurrers.

Judgment affirmed.

Felton, J., concurs.