Moffett v. McCurry

67 S.E.2d 807, 84 Ga. App. 853, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 811
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 21, 1951
Docket33544
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 67 S.E.2d 807 (Moffett v. McCurry) 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
Moffett v. McCurry, 67 S.E.2d 807, 84 Ga. App. 853, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 811 (Ga. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinions

Worrill, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The defendant assigns error on the overruling of its general demurrer, which contended that it affirmatively appeared in the petition that the plaintiff could have avoided any injury and damage which he may have sustained had he exercised ordinary care and diligence. “Questions as to diligence and negligence, including contributory negligence and what negligence constitutes the proximate cause of the injury complained of, are questions peculiarly for the jury, such as this court will decline to solve on demurrer except in palpably clear, plain, and indisputable cases.” Tybee Amusement Co. v. Odum, 51 Ga. App. 1 (3) (179 S. E. 415). In Adams v. Jackson, 45 Ga. App. 860 (166 S. E. 258), where the plaintiff was suing the owner and the driver of the car in which his son was riding as well as the owner of the parked truck with which the car collided, the court in overruling the general demurrer of the owner of the truck, said in headnote 1: “Where the automobile in which plaintiff’s son was riding along a public highway was being driven at an excessive rate of speed down hill on a winding road-and around a curve on a dark [857]*857night, and collided with a truck parked on the side of the road, with about four feet of the truck projecting into the highway and with no rear light burning, which was visible for one hundred feet to any one approaching from the rear, killing the plaintiff’s son, the act of the driver of the automobile in so driving was not necessarily the proximate cause of the death.” An examination of the petition, the substantial allegations of which are set out in the foregoing facts, will show that it is certainly not a palpably clear, plain, and indisputable case, which would authorize the court to hold as a matter of law that the plaintiff failed to exercise ordinary care and diligence. The petition set forth a cause of action and the court did not err in overruling the general demurrer.

Ground 1 of the amended motion complains because the court failed to charge the jury that Pennsylvania Threshermen & Farmers’ Mutual Casualty Insurance Company was named as a defendant in the suit only because it had issued a policy of liability insurance to defendant K. S. Moffett, doing business as Moffett Transit Lines, insuring him against liability imposed upon him by law for damages growing out of the negligent operation and maintenance of the vehicle referred to in the suit, and that no verdict could be rendered against Pennsylvania Threshermen & Farmers’ Mutual Casualty Insurance Company unless the jury believed the defendant Moffett was liable under the rules of law given in the charge. Movant contends that the failure so to charge amounted to an instruction to the jury that they might return a verdict against this defendant upon proof of injury and damage and nothing more. Paragraph 22 of the plaintiff’s petition, which was first denied and then admitted by the defendant, showed that the Pennsylvania Threshermen & Farmers’ Mutual Casualty Insurance Company was being sued because by the terms of a policy issued to the Moffett Transit Lines, it had agreed to pay for any damage resulting from the negligence of said transit lines, up to-the limits of the policy, and the pleadings were, according to the charge of the court, made available to the jury in order that they might note the contentions of the parties. In the last portion of the charge, the jury was instructed what the form of the verdict should be in case they found: (a) for the plaintiff and against all the defendants, [858]*858(b) for the plaintiff and against all the defendants except either Pitts or Spivey, (c) for the defendant Moffett on his cross-action, (d) for no recovery on either the action or cross-action. In the absence of a timely written request, where the court had previously charged that negligence must be shown to entitle the plaintiff to recover against the transit lines, this instruction was sufficient to show the jury that any liability of the insurance company would have to be based on liability of the transit lines.

Ground 2 assigns error because the court read to the jury the following contention of negligence contained in the plaintiff’s petition: “In that the defendants and their agents and employees failed to display clearance lights at each extremity on the rear of said truck after darkness, in violation of the law of Georgia, the same being negligence per se.” Movant contends it was error because said specification of negligence was not supported by any evidence whatever, since Code (Ann. Supp.) § 68-316 (b) requires clearance of only those trucks of more than one and one-half ton capacity, and the only evidence as to the size of the truck showed it to be one and one-half ton capacity. “It is one thing to state what a party contends, and another and a very different thing to state the law applicable to such contention.” Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Ry. Co. v. Gardner, 122 Ga. 82, 93 (49 S. E. 818). Although it is error to submit to the jury an issue not arising under either the pleadings or the evidence (Matthews v. Seaboard Air-Line Ry., 17 Ga. App. 664, 87 S. E. 1097), or to charge the law applicable to contentions unsupported by the evidence (Craig v. Augusta Roofing & Metal Works, 78 Ga. App. 514, 516, 51 S. E. 2d, 565), unless it appeared that the jury could not have been misled thereby (Nelson v. Huber & Huber Express Inc., 79 Ga. App. 721, 723, 54 S. E. 2d, 462), it is not improper, in charging the jury, to state the contentions made by the allegations of the petition (Barbre v. Scott, 75 Ga. App. 524, 534, 43 S. E. 2d, 760), or to give them by a narrative reading of the petition (McGee v. Bennett, 72 Ga. App. 271, 273, 33 S. E. 2d, 577), even though some of the contentions in either instance be unsupported by the evidence (Armour & Company v. Roberts, 63 Ga. App. 846, 847, 12 S. E. 2d, 376). Here, the judge did not charge the law applicable to the contention referred to, but merely read the plaintiff’s contention as embodied in the petition. This is not error.

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Moffett v. McCurry
67 S.E.2d 807 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1951)

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Bluebook (online)
67 S.E.2d 807, 84 Ga. App. 853, 1951 Ga. App. LEXIS 811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moffett-v-mccurry-gactapp-1951.