Armburst v. Cox Broadcasting Corp.
| Decision Date | 08 March 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 3,No. 43451,43451,3 |
| Citation | 117 Ga.App. 381,160 S.E.2d 609 |
| Parties | Terry Lee ARMBURST v. COX BROADCASTING CORPORATION |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
A corporation legally sponsoring a parade on public streets along a route specified in a municipal permit is not liable for injury to a spectator watching the parade because other spectators, climbing on scaffolding placed for construction purposes around a private building, caused some plywood sheathing to fall on the plaintiff and injure him, where the defendant itself committed no negligent act, was not in control of the building or construction around it, and had no actual knowledge of the alleged defective and unsafe construction of the scaffolding.
The plaintiff, a 9 year old child suing by next friend, seeks to recover damages for personal injuries, naming as joint tortfeasors Mion Construction Company, Inc., Atlanta Federal Savings & Loan Assn., the City of Atlanta, and the appellee Cox Broadcasting Corp., and assigning error on the trial court's judgment dismissing the latter as a party defendant on the ground that the petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The allegations are as follows: Cox Broadcasting Corp. applied for and obtained from the City of Atlanta a permit for a Fourth of July parade, and gave wide advertising publicity to the event. It erected a reviewing stand at Five Points in the downtown area on which were seated, among others, a number of television celebrities, and arranged for the parade to pass south on Peachtree Street, turning west on Marieta past the reviewing stand. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Federal Savings & Loan Assn. had for some weeks been in the process of having its building front renovated by the Mion Construction Co., Inc., and a building permit had been obtained from the city for this purpose. Mion erected a sidewalk cover along the front of the building by laying flat sheets of plywood over a tubular steel framework. It is alleged that this 'wood walkway' was inherently dangerous because it had no lateral supports, the plywood was not attached to the structure, and on the application of weight the structure would sag and the plywood slip off. Ladder steps afforded access to the wood walkway which was located 100 feet from the reviewing stand. The structure was not enclosed, barricaded, roped off, guarded or posted against use. Several small boys mounted it better to view the parade; the weight caused the supports to buckle, and a sheet of plywood slid off, striking and injuring the plaintiff, who was one of several thousand spectators viewing the parade and who was at the time standing on Marietta street in front of the scaffolding. Negligence is charged against appellee Cox in failing to have the parade permit changed and the parade rerouted away from the unsafe scaffolding; in failing to...
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City of Douglasville v. Queen
...who legally uses city streets for parade purposes is not an insurer of the safety of the spectators." Armburst v. Cox Broadcasting Corp., 117 Ga.App. 381, 383, 160 S.E.2d 609 (1968). Individuals attending a municipal parade may reasonably be expected to walk on train tracks adjacent to the ......
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Queen v. City of Douglasville
...care to anticipate and guard against injury the proximate cause of which is within its control." Armburst v. Cox Broadcasting Corp., 117 Ga.App. 381, 382, 160 S.E.2d 609 (1968). There was evidence that the City recognized the hazard posed by conducting the parade in close proximity to the r......
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Rutledge v. City of Atlanta, s. 48501
...previous opinions by this court reported as Mion Const. Co. v. Rutledge, 123 Ga.App. 777, 182 S.E.2d 500 and Armburst v. Cox Broadcasting Corp., 117 Ga.App. 381, 160 S.E.2d 609. These prior opinions contain an elaboration of the facts. The Mion Construction case is particularly pertinent as......
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Queen v. City of Douglasville
...ordinary care to anticipate and guard against injury the proximate cause of which is within its control." Armburst v. Cox Broadcasting Corporation, 117 Ga.App. 381, 382, 160 S.E.2d 609. There was evidence that the defendant recognized the hazard posed by conducting the parade in close proxi......