Prince v. Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

435 S.E.2d 482, 210 Ga. App. 108, 93 Fulton County D. Rep. 3182, 1993 Ga. App. LEXIS 1082
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedAugust 23, 1993
DocketA93A1649
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 435 S.E.2d 482 (Prince v. Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling 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
Prince v. Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 435 S.E.2d 482, 210 Ga. App. 108, 93 Fulton County D. Rep. 3182, 1993 Ga. App. LEXIS 1082 (Ga. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

Birdsong, Presiding Judge.

Lisa Prince appeals from the grant of summary judgment to defendant Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a division of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. (ACCBC). Defendant Phar-Mor, having filed a no[109]*109tice of bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio, is not a party to this appeal.

Phar-Mor sponsored a promotional event featuring entertainment by a live radio station and refreshments from a special events wagon of ACCBC. Appellant was crossing the parking area to enter the Phar-Mor store to make a purchase when she slipped and fell, apparently in a puddle of water which leaked from the ACCBC special events wagon.

Appellant filed suit for injuries, claiming, inter alia, that ACCBC contracted with Phar-Mor to provide refreshments during the promotional event; that being distracted by various activities which Phar-Mor created by inviting a local radio station to perform during the promotional, appellant was not aware or made aware by defendants of the water puddle which had formed near the ACCBC trailer where defendant Coca-Cola was serving refreshments; that plaintiff was injured when she went through this puddle, slipped and fell; that ACCBC was negligent in failing properly to maintain the area surrounding its refreshment trailer; that ACCBC was negligent in allowing drain water from the trailer to accumulate around the area knowing the condition was dangerous; that ACCBC was negligent by failing to warn appellant of this slippery, dangerous, and unsafe condition; and that her injuries were a direct and proximate result of ACCBC’s negligence and breach of duty.

An affidavit filed by ACCBC’s plant manager in support of its motion for summary judgment reflects these uncontroverted facts: a Coca-Cola special events wagon was provided to Phar-Mor, at the latter’s request, for a Phar-Mor event; ACCBC did not charge Phar-Mor for the use of the wagon; “Phar-Mor and its customers paid only for the [wagon] set-up and the products that Phar-Mor sold from the wagon”; the wagon was delivered to the Phar-Mor facility by an ACCBC employee and placed in the parking lot at the location instructed by Phar-Mor employees; ACCBC did not provide employees to staff the wagon; the wagon was staffed by Phar-Mor employees who served soft drinks and food from the wagon; ACCBC neither owns, nor operates, nor has any control over the premises where the incident occurred; ACCBC neither manufactured nor designed the wagon. ACCBC had no knowledge of the incident until several months later. Held:

1. On motion for summary judgment, “the opposing party should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt, and the court should construe the evidence and all inferences and conclusions arising therefrom most favorably toward the [opposing] party.” Langford v. Royal Indent. Co., 208 Ga. App. 128 (1) (430 SE2d 98). Nevertheless, a defendant who will not bear the burden of proof at trial need not affirmatively disprove the nonmoving party’s case. Instead, “the burden on [110]*110the moving party may be discharged by pointing out by reference to the affidavits, depositions and other documents in the record that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491 (405 SE2d 474). If the moving party discharges this burden, as in this case, the nonmoving party cannot rest on its pleadings, but must point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue. Id.

2. The parties in this case have advanced various theories of premises liability; however, any liability of ACCBC for the injury of appellant is controlled by the law of bailment, specifically the legal duty, if any, owed by a bailor (ACCBC) for the injuries sustained by appellant (third party) as a result of an alleged defect of the bailed chattel (the special events wagon). See generally OCGA § 44-12-40. Phar-Mor, not ACCBC, was the occupier of the land where the incident occurred. Compare Church’s Fried Chicken v. Lewis, 150 Ga. App. 154 (256 SE2d 916).

OCGA § 44-12-63 establishes the obligations of a bailor for hire and pertinently provides: The obligations of the bailor of things are: “(2) To keep the thing in suitable order and repair for the purposes of the bailment; and (3) To warrant the right of possession and that the thing bailed is free from any secret fault rendering it unfit for the purposes for which it is hired.” See generally Parker v. Loving & Co., 13 Ga. App. 284 (79 SE 77). Hertz Driv-Ur-Self &c. v. Benson, 83 Ga. App. 866, 874 (3) (65 SE2d 191) in effect “recognizes that the bailor, entrusting [a chattel] to [a bailee] for immediate operation, has a duty of using ordinary care to ascertain that the [chattel] has no hidden defects rendering it dangerous, and that this duty extends to those persons within the range of foreseeable operation of the [chattel]. . . . Since the bailor’s duty extends to persons other than the parties to the actual bailment contract, the limits of the bailor’s liability are not to be determined alone by the provisions and warranties of the contract of bailment, but also by the limits imposed by the doctrine of proximate cause, that is, whether the defendant [ACCBC] should have foreseen the consequences of [its alleged] negligence, as a natural and probable result.”

But, if the “ ‘bailment is purely gratuitous, and created for the exclusive benefit of the bailee, as where articles are loaned to another simply for his own use, without any reward or compensation being received from him by the lender, the bailor’s only duty in respect of defects is to inform the bailee of any of which he is aware and which might make the use of the subject of the loan perilous to the bailee or to his servants.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.) Howell v. Amerson, 116 Ga. App. 211 (2) (156 SE2d 370); accord Butler v. Shirah, 154 Ga. App. 111 (1) (267 SE2d 647). “Thus, it is essential that a bailor use ordinary care to inspect the bailed article before delivery to ascertain if it [111]*111was in a reasonably safe condition to avoid injury to another.” Hall v. Skate Escape, 171 Ga. App. 178, 179 (319 SE2d 67). “A bailor violating his obligation to furnish property reasonably fit for the purpose for which hired [or his obligation to inspect the bailed article before delivery to ascertain if it was in reasonably safe condition] may be liable to third persons using such property, at the bailee’s invitation, for injuries caused by its being in improper condition when delivered to the bailee, but not for injuries resulting from a dangerous condition which arises after delivery, and a bailor intrusting a dangerous article to his bailee, knowing that it will be used in such a manner as to endanger persons and property; is liable for any injury which, by the exercise of ordinary prudence, he could have foreseen.” (Emphasis supplied.) 8 CJS, Bailments, § 97.

Whether a bailment is gratuitous has on occasion presented an issue for the factfinder. See Lakeside Ford v. White, 159 Ga. App. 182 (283 SE2d 47). Normally, however, “the character of a particular bailment, whether gratuitous or not, is to be determined by the contract between the parties to it.” Merchants Nat. Bank of Savannah v. Guilmartin, 88 Ga. 797, 804 (2) (15 SE 831).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
435 S.E.2d 482, 210 Ga. App. 108, 93 Fulton County D. Rep. 3182, 1993 Ga. App. LEXIS 1082, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prince-v-atlanta-coca-cola-bottling-co-gactapp-1993.