Harris v. Hub Motor Co.

184 S.E.2d 199, 124 Ga. App. 490, 1971 Ga. App. LEXIS 984
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 30, 1971
Docket46523
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 184 S.E.2d 199 (Harris v. Hub Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harris v. Hub Motor Co., 184 S.E.2d 199, 124 Ga. App. 490, 1971 Ga. App. LEXIS 984 (Ga. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

Jordan, Presiding Judge.

The plaintiff appeals from the overruling of his motion for a new trial, after verdict and judgment for the defendant, asserting error on the jury instructions regarding negligence rules as given or omitted. Held:

1. There was some evidence which would have authorized the jury to determine by inference that the defendant’s servant negligently failed to fill the radiator of a truck engine, after replacing a defective heater hose, which caused the engine to overheat, and that the plaintiff driver, upon raising the hood, over the engine to investigate the cause of steam or smoke escaping, may have negligently hit the radiator cap, causing it to come off, and that the combined negligence of the defendant’s servant and the plaintiff could proximately have caused the plaintiff’s injuries. The plaintiff was burned by steam or hot [491]*491fluid from the radiator immediately after he opened the hood. The defensive pleadings included allegations that if the defendant was negligent, the plaintiff was also negligent, and that the negligence should be compared. The trial judge failed to instruct on comparative negligence, and the plaintiff duly objected to this omission at the close of the instructions and before the jury returned a verdict. Under the circumstances here shown we think the trial judge erred in failing to give the jury instructions on the rules for comparing the negligence of the defendant’s servant and the plaintiff, in the event the jury should find that both were negligent in proximately causing the plaintiff’s injuries. See Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1072, 1078 (Code Ann. §70-207 (a)); Code §105-603; Crafton v. Livingston, 114 Ga. App. 161 (2) (150 SE2d 371); Whatley v. Henry, 65 Ga. App. 668, 674 (16 SE2d 214); Southern Express Co. v. Hughes, 23 Ga. App. 224 (97 SE 860).

Argued September 14, 1971 Decided September 30, 1971. C. Lawrence Jewett, for appellant. Hurt, Hill & Richardson, Robert R. Richardson, Sam E. Thomas, for appellee.

2. The remaining contentions are without merit.

Judgment reversed.

Quillian and Evans, JJ., concur.

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270 S.E.2d 347 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1980)
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253 S.E.2d 842 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
184 S.E.2d 199, 124 Ga. App. 490, 1971 Ga. App. LEXIS 984, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-hub-motor-co-gactapp-1971.