Rollestone v. Cassirer & Co.

59 S.E. 442, 3 Ga. App. 161, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 586
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 27, 1907
Docket656
StatusPublished
Cited by99 cases

This text of 59 S.E. 442 (Rollestone v. Cassirer & 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
Rollestone v. Cassirer & Co., 59 S.E. 442, 3 Ga. App. 161, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 586 (Ga. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

Powell, J.

1. The different aspects in which the liability of the owner or proprietor of premises for injuries received by persons present thereon might be viewed were pointed out and discussed by this court at some length in the case of Mandeville Mills v. Dale, 2 Ga. App. 609 (58 S. E. 1060). If the deceased was on the premises by invitation, express or implied, the proprietor of the saloon was under a higher duty to him than if he was there' -as a bare licensee. It is conceded that ordinarily the opening ■of a public place of business is an invitation to members of the public to come in and transact that business; that customers in a place of business where goods are sold are ordinarily not bare licensees; but it is said that in this case no such invitation is to be implied,, because, under the allegations of the petition, the plaintiff was a drunk man, and by the Penal Code, §443, “Any .seller of spirituous liquors who shall sell or furnish liquors or •other intoxicating drinks to any person who is at the time intoxicated or drunk shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” In the absence ■of an allegation that the defendant had been accustomed to sell to the deceased or others when they were drunk, or any other allegation tending to show that the deceased had reasonable cause to [166]*166believe that the defendants were willing to entertain his offer to' buy on the occasion under consideration, we are led to hold, in the. light of the statute quoted, that no invitation to the deceased to-come for the purpose for which the petition says he came can be implied against the defendant. He was on the premises as a licensee; for members of the public, of the class usually allowed to enter, will not be considered as naked trespassers, when they are, without objection, peaceably in a- public business house, though, having no immediate business with the proprietor.

We are not to be understood as holding that one can be regarded, as an invited person in a saloon only when he is approaching the; counter to buy or when he is actually drinking. On the contrary, a person who-has no intention of drinking at all may stand in this, relation. For instance, if the proprietor places pictures, baseball scores, free lunches, musicians, or other things in his saloon, to-attract persons there, with a view of advertising his business and with the hope that some or all of them may drink at his bar, such persons as come in response to this implicit invitation are more; than bare licensees. So also, those persons who, having recently been customers or presently intending to be, with the proprietor’s, acquiescence and in accordance with common usage, sit or stand, in the saloon, are more than licensees. Under this petition, however, the attempt to raise the. implication of an invitation rests, solely upon the fact that deceased entered to buy liquors, — a.' thing he could not reasonably expect to do in his drunken condition.

3. The owner or proprietor of the premises is, however, not free-from' duty to a licensee. The premises must not contain pitfalls,, man-traps, and things of that character. Mandeville Mills v. Dale, supra. “There is a class of decisions holding that it is. ■ actionable negligence for the owner of grounds, over which people-are accustomed to pass, to expose thereon anything which is peculiarly dangerous. These decisions proceed on the ground that-such conduct is a wanton violation of the obligations which, in a state of society, every individual holds to every other. . . This, is not a negation of the doctrine that the owner of a private building being erected on a private lot owes'no duty to trespassers and idlers, or persons visiting the premises merely for their individual benefit or for curiosity, other than that he shall inflict upon them. [167]*167no wilful or wanton injury. . . The sound view seems to be that the owner or occupier of real property may become liable, on the footing of negligence, to persons who are injured in their persons or their property, through the needless, wanton, or grossly negligent act of exposing other dangerous things upon his premises or upon the highway adjacent thereto, attracting children or animals or endangering the safety of the unwary.” 1 Thomp. Neg. (ed. 1901) §950. “Some courts, disregarding distinctions relating-to trespassers,-intruders, hare licensees, etc., place the doctrine on the broad and just ground that the owner or occupier of premises is bound to exercise ordinary care to the end of keeping his premises in such condition that they will not, by reason of any insecurity or insufficiency, injure any person rightfully in, around, or passing by them, — at the same time holding that such owner or occupier is not an insurer against accidents which may happen from the condition of the premises. The distinction is that the person coming upon the premises, to whom this duty of care is due, must not come as a mere trespasser or wrong-doer, but for some purpose lawful in itself, and such as the owner or occupier might reasonably expect to bring him there. This being the rule, if the person injured is rightfully upon the premises, it will make no difference with reference to his right of action for the injury whether he is 'there as' a licensee or by invitation.” Id. §969. We think that, while a difference exists between the elemental concepts upon which the respective liabilities arise in cases of licensees and of invited persons, also between the terms in which the respective duties are theoretically to be stated, and while in theory the degree of care required in one case may differ from that required in the other, still, frequently the actual quantum of diligence necessary to fulfil the legal duty, under the circumstances, owing to the licensee is no less than it would be if he were an invited person. Theoretically the degree of diligence owing by the proprietor of the premises, who has a pitfall thereon to a licensee is less than that due his invited guest; yet, after the presence of the licensee is known, exactly the same acts of caution may be required of the proprietor, to satisfy the legal duty, as would be necessary if the licensee were invited. Indeed, we can conceive that the owner of lands on which a dangerous thing exists may be in legal duty bound to use a greater quantum of precaution in [168]*168behalf of an infant licensee thereon than he would in behalf of an adult invited guest. The sum of the whole matter is included in the expression frequently enunciated that “duties "arise out of circumstances.”

In the case of Newark Electric Co. v. Garden, 78 Fed. 74 (23 C. C. A. 649, 37 L. R. A. 725), Judge Dallas, after referring to the general rule that as to trespassers the landowner may keep his premises in such condition as he sees fit, quotes approvingly from Hydraulic Co. v. Orr, 83 Pa. St. 332, as follows: “It is true that, where no duty is owed, no liability arises. . . But, as has often been said, duties arise out of circumstances. Hence, where the owner has reason to apprehend danger, owing to the peculiar situation of his property, and its openness to accident, the rule will .vary;” and adds the following: “It makes no difference, where the circumstances give rise to duty, that the plaintiff was ‘technically a trespasser.’ Schilling v. Abernethy, 112 Pa. St. 437 (3 Atl. 792, 56 Am. R. 320). The true question is: Was he ‘a trespasser there, in a sense that would excuse the defendant for acts of negligence, . .

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Bluebook (online)
59 S.E. 442, 3 Ga. App. 161, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 586, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rollestone-v-cassirer-co-gactapp-1907.