Mayor of Savannah v. Kicklighter

189 S.E. 689, 55 Ga. App. 169, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 27
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 22, 1937
Docket25839
StatusPublished

This text of 189 S.E. 689 (Mayor of Savannah v. Kicklighter) 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
Mayor of Savannah v. Kicklighter, 189 S.E. 689, 55 Ga. App. 169, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 27 (Ga. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

Guerry, J.

Julia Kieklighter obtained a judgment against the mayor and aldermen of the City of Savannah, for damages from injury which she alleged she sustained by walking into certain iron rails embedded in the ground next to a sidewalk on a certain street in that city, and extending over the sidewalk. The defendant contends that a new trial should be granted, because the court erred in charging the jury as follows: “The jury may also consider any other evidence which has been introduced here before it to-day, such as the standards which are alleged to have caused the injury;” fox the reasons (a) “that the standards had not been tendered or admitted in evidence, and therefore were not part of the evidence, and should not have been considered' by the jury in determination of the issues in said case;” (b) ’“that the above-quoted charge is erroneous and harmful, in that the court thereby expressed the opinion that the standards, which this charge of the court assumed had been introduced in evidence, were in fact the standards removed from the property, whereas movant had contended throughout the trial of said case that the said standards exhibited by plaintiff were not the standards removed from the property.” Further, that a new trial should be granted, “because the court erred in permitting said standards to be taken by the jury to the jury-room while they were deliberating the issues in said case. This was error prejudicial to defendant, in that said standards had not been tendered or admitted in evidence, and should not have been considered by nor been in the custody of the jury while considering the issues in said case. Movant contends that the allowance of these standards to go out with the jury was prejudicial, in that testimony for the movant was that the standards which were brought into [171]*171court by the plaintiff were not the standards that had been upon the property of defendant; and since said standards had never been tendered or admitted in evidence, movant had no opportunity to object to their admissibility.” With reference to these standards, it appears that on the trial the plaintiff produced two iron standards or rails. J. L. Kicklighter, father of the plaintiff, testified: “Those standards looked to me like a bed-railing, approximately 1% by 2-inch standards. Those two standards there are the standards in question [identifying the pieces]. They were not away from the sidewalk, but were against the sidewalk. You can see on the standards there [exhibiting the standards to the jury] that they projected above the ground approximately 12 inches. That mark is the rust, showing they were driven in the ground; the rust indicates the damage to the iron that was in the ground. . . I identify these two as the two standards driven there, because two were driven there, and I should say they are the ones.” Enoch L. Hendry, testified: “I am in the detective department of the City of Savannah. . . On March 13, 1935 . . I remember Mr. Coursey and I were sent to answer a call on 33d and Montgomery, that there were some obstructions there that ought to be looked after. I remember we pulled up the stobs and took them back to the barracks. Those are the stobs that we took in. It looks to me like the stobs show they were driven into the ground up to here [indicating], and I would say that is about 12 inches from the top.” Mrs. W. G. Edmundson, after testifying that there were two iron standards at about the place plaintiff claimed she sustained her injury, said: “If those are not the two standards, they were something like that; they were not round; that is the kind of stob that was there.”

The evidence for the defendant contradicted the plaintiff’s witnesses as to the exact location of the standards. One witness testified: “These two rails here behind me are not the ones that were out there.” The bill of exceptions recites: “Be it further remembered, that said motion for new trial came on to be heard on June 6, 1936, at which time defendant submitted to the court for approval its amended motion for new trial; and at said time the court inquired of the bailiff of the court, who had been in charge of the jury at the trial, if it was true, as recited in the amended motion, that the iron standards referred to in the amended motion [172]*172for new trial were taken out with the jury to the jury-roonr. In response the bailiff informed the court that said standards were taken out with the jury and were in the custody of the jury while they were deliberating the issues in said case; at the same time counsel for the defendant, in response to an inquiry by the court, stated in his place that he did not know said standards were being taken out with the juty, and that he did not learn of said fact until after the jury had retired and were deliberating the issues in said case.” In approving the grounds of the motion for new trial the court said: “While it is true, as recited, that the standards referred to in the recitals of facts in the above amended motion for new trial were not formally introduced in evidence, it is proper for the appellate court to know, in reference to the same, that while the standards, so far as the stenographer’s notes show, were not formally introduced in evidence, nevertheless they were exr hibited to witnesses in the case, marks on the stands were identified, and matters pertaining to the standards were freely testified to by witnesses who exhibited the standards to the jury. Furthermore, when the standards were being exhibited to the jury, during the argument of counsel for the plaintiff, objection was made to the writing on a card which was attached to the standards, on the ground that the card had not been introduced in evidence, and this objection was sustained by the court. No objection whatever was made at that time by counsel for the defendant to the standards themselves, which were being freely exhibited and displayed to the jury; the only objection being to the card mentioned.”

In respect to the question whether a new trial should be granted because the jury had out with them the standards which had not been formally introduced in evidence, counsel for defendant cite Barrow v. State, 15 Ga. App. 690 (84 S. E. 204); Smith v. State, 14 Ga. App. 610 (81 S. E. 817). In McCoy v. State, 78 Ga. 490 (3 S. E. 768), the court ruled: “For the jury, without the knowledge or consent o'f the prisoner, and without leave of the court, to receive and keep in their room, whilst deliberating on the case, the gun with which the State contends the homicide was committed, and the coat worn ’by the deceased at his death and pierced with the fatal shot, is unwarranted by law.” In that case it appeared from the certificate of the judge that the articles were identified by witnesses and exhibited to the jury, though not formally [173]*173introduced in evidence during the trial. In Barrow V. State, supra, the court said: “For the jury, without the knowledge or consent of the prisoner, to receive and keep in their room, while deliberating on the case, articles of goods which ‘the State sent out to the jury-room/ and which were alleged to have been stolen on the night of the burglary in question, and which had been identified in the presence of the jury, but had not been introduced in evidence, was unwarranted by law, and was presumably prejudicial to the defendant.” In Smith v. State, supra, the court said: “Where physicial objects are introduced in evidence without objection, the general rule is that any objection which could have been made will be held to have been waived. But where, upon the suggestion of the court ex

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Stokes Church
135 S.E. 769 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1926)
Martin v. Tidwell
36 Ga. 332 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1867)
Wynne v. State
56 Ga. 113 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1876)
Moon v. State
68 Ga. 687 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1882)
Franklin v. State
69 Ga. 36 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1882)
McCoy v. State
3 S.E. 768 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1887)
Shaw v. State
9 S.E. 768 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1889)
Adams v. State
18 S.E. 553 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1893)
Burke v. State
96 S.E. 326 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1918)
Union v. State
66 S.E. 24 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1909)
Georgia Excelsior Co. v. Hartfelder-Garbutt Co.
78 S.E. 611 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1913)
Miller v. State
79 S.E. 232 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1913)
Rome Railway & Light Co. v. Lansdell
79 S.E. 1131 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1913)
Smith v. State
81 S.E. 817 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1914)
Bragg v. State
84 S.E. 82 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1915)
Barrow v. State
84 S.E. 204 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1915)
Braxley v. State
86 S.E. 425 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1915)
Collier v. Schoenberg
106 S.E. 581 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1921)
Savannah Electric Co. v. Lowe
108 S.E. 313 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1921)
Sorrow v. State
123 S.E. 914 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 S.E. 689, 55 Ga. App. 169, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mayor-of-savannah-v-kicklighter-gactapp-1937.