Mandeville Mills v. Dale

58 S.E. 1060, 2 Ga. App. 607, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 456
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 14, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by112 cases

This text of 58 S.E. 1060 (Mandeville Mills v. Dale) 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
Mandeville Mills v. Dale, 58 S.E. 1060, 2 Ga. App. 607, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 456 (Ga. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

Powell, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

1. The liability of the owner or proprietor of premises, for injuries received by persons while present upon such premises, may be viewed in four aspects: (1) Where the person injured is there as a trespasser; (2) where he is there as a licensee; (3) where he is there by invitation of the owner or proprietor; (4) where he is there under some other special relation., In the first case — that of the trespasser — liability arises only where the injury has been occasioned by the wilful and wanton negligence of the proprietor or owner. No duty of anticipating his presence is imposed]; and^ as was pointed out by this court in Charleston & W. C. Ry. Co. v. Johnson, 1 Ga. App. 441 (57 S. E. 1064),the duty to use ordinary care to avoid injuring him after his presence and danger is actually known is, in point of fact, merely the duty not to injure him wantonly or wilfully. So in the first case wanton or wilful negligence is essential to liability. ¡ In the second ease— that of the licensee — there is a slightly higher duty on the part of the owner or proprietor of the premises. He must not wantonly and wilfully injure the licensee; and since his presence as a result of his license is at all times probable, some care must be taken to anticipate his presence, and ordinary care and diligence must be med to prevent injuring him after his presence is known or reasonably should be anticipated. The fundamental concept in this class of cases, as in that of trespassers, is of a liability only for wilful or wanton injury; but it is usually wilful or wanton not to exercise ordinary care to prevent injuring a person who is actually known to be, or reasonably is expected to be, within the range of a dangerous act being done./ See Southern Ry. Co. v. [610]*610Chatman, 124 Ga. 1026 (53 S. E. 692, 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 283). To the licensee, as to the trespasser, no duty arises oí keeping the usual condition of the premises up to any given standard of safety, except that they must not contain pitfalls, man-traps, and. things of that character.

In the case of persons on the premises by invitation of the owner or proprietor, a higher degree of care is demanded. “Where the owner or occupier of land, by express or implied invitation, induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, he is liable in damages to such persons for injuries occasioned by his failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”/ Civil Code, § 3824. The definition of the word “invitation,” as given in leading eases, shows why this should be so. We quote from Sweeny v. Old Colony R. Co., 92 Mass. (10 Allen) 373 (87 Am. Dec. 644): “The general rule or principle applicable to this class of cases is, that an owner or occupant is bound to keep his premises in a safe and suitable condition for those who come upon and pass over them, using due care, if he has held out any invitation, allurement or inducement, either express or implied, by which they have been led to enter thereon, y A mere naked license or permission to enter or pass over an estate will not create a duty or impose an obligation on the part of the owner, or one in possession, to provide against the danger of accident. The gist of the liability consists in the fact that the person injured did not act merely for his own convenience and pleasure, and from motives to which no act or sign of the owner or occupant contributed, but that he entered the premises because he was led to believe that they were intended to be used by visitors or passengers, and that such use was not only acquiesced in by the o-vimer or person in possession and control of the premises, but that it was in accordance with the intention and design with which the way or place was adapted and prepared or allowed to be so used. The true distinction is this: A mere passive acquiescence by the owner or occupier in a certain use of his land by others involves no liability; but if he directly or by implication induces persons to enter on and pass over his premises, he thereby assumes an obligation that they are in a safe condition, suitable for such use; and for a breach of this obligation he is liable in damages to a person injured thereby.”

[611]*611It is likewise said, in Turess v. New York R. Co., 61 N. J. Law, 314 (40 Atl. 614): “‘Invitations’ is a term whose legal import is known, and may be used to express the relation between an owner or occupier of land and one who comes thereon under certain circumstances. The invitation which creates such a relation may be express, as when the' owner or occupier of lands by words invites another to come on it, or make use of it or sométhing thereon; or it may be implied, as when such owner or occupier, by acts or conduct, leads another to believe the land or something thereon was intended to be used as he uses them, and that such use is not only acquiesced in by the owner or occupier, but is in accordance with the intention or design for which the way or place or thing was adapted and prepared or allowed to be used.” The distinction between the duty to a licensee and to one entering the premises under invitation is thus expressed in Beehler v. Daniels, 18 R. I. 563, 565 (29 Atl. 6, 27 L. R. A. 512, 49 Am. St. R. 790): “There is a clear distinction between ,-a ‘license’ and an ‘invitation’ to enter premises, and an equally olear distinction as to the duty of an owner in the two cases. An owner owes to a licensee no duty as to the condition of premises, unless imposed by statute, save that he should not knowingly let him run upon a hidden peril, or wilfully cause him harm; while io one invited he is under obligation for reasonable security for the purposes of the invitation.” Mere permission to enter the premises creates the relation of licensee; invitation, express or implied, is necessary to create the more responsible relation and the consequent higher duty upon the owner or proprietor. In this class of cases wilfulness or wantonness is not necessary to ihe existence of liability, but merely ordinary neglect, either' through act of omission or of commission. See Atlanta Cotton-Seed Oil Mills v. Coffey, 80 Ga. 145 (4 S. E. 759, 12 Am. St. R. 244); Archer v. Blalock, 97 Ga. 719 (25 S. E. 391); Central R. Co. v. Robertson, 95 Ga. 430 (22 S. E. 551). The case of Augusta Ry. Co. v. Andrews, 89 Ga. 653 (16 S. E. 203), and 92 Ga. 706 (19 S. E. 713), is authority, not for the proposition that mere permission is equal to an invitation, but for the proposition that a duly is owing to a licensee. ■

/The fourth class we shall not take up in detail; but it consists of those cases wherein, by reason of contract, public policy, or [612]*612otherwise, there is imposed upon the owner or proprietor of the premises extreme care and caution. The duty owing by a carrier to his passenger is within this class.

The plaintiff in error asserts that young Dale was within the second class mentioned above, — was a bare licensee.; the defendant in error says that he was within the third class, was upon the premises of the mill company by invitation. If the petition had not been amended, the contention of the plaintiff in error would have been well founded.

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58 S.E. 1060, 2 Ga. App. 607, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mandeville-mills-v-dale-gactapp-1907.