Battle v. Kilcrease
| Decision Date | 05 December 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 25731.,25731. |
| Citation | 54 Ga.App. 808,189 S.E. 573 |
| Parties | BATTLE. v. KILCREASE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by Editorial Staff.
Error from City Court of Sylvester County; C. W. Monk, Judge.
Suit by Mrs. W. B. Kilcrease against J. N. Battle, Sr. Judgment for the plaintiff, defendant's motion for a new trial was overruled, and defendant brings error.
Affirmed.
J. B. Williamson and R. S. Foy, both of Sylvester, for plaintiff in error.
Tipton & Houston, of Sylvester, for defendant in error.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court.
1. The conduct of a hit and run driver of an automobile in failing to stop and give his name, etc., and render assistance to the person injured by him in the operation of his automobile along a public highway may, in that it is in violation of a statute (Ga.Laws 1927, pp. 226, 238, Code, § 68-308), be regarded as negligence as a matter of law. Although when taken alone, such conduct may have no causal connection with the act which caused the injuries, the conduct of the driver in hitting, running, and failing to stop, etc., is a circumstance which may be considered, in connection with his other acts preceding the injury, as tending to establish his conduct in causing the injury as being negligence.
2. On the trial of a suit to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff as a result of the negligence of the defendant, through his agent, the driver and operator of an automobile along a public highway, in running the defendant's automobile into the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding, knocking it out of the road, and turning it over, where it was alleged in the petition andappeared from the evidence that the driver of the defendant's automobile, with knowledge that the automobile had hit the automobile of the plaintiff, knocked it out of the road, and turned it over, failed to stop, etc., and render assistance to the plaintiff, although it was not alleged that the conduct of the driver of the defendant's automobile in failing to stop, etc., was an act of negligence proximately connected with the plaintiff's injuries, and it did not appear from the evidence that the plaintiff suffered any injuries as a result of the failure of the driver of the defendant's automobile to stop, etc., and render assistance, it was nevertheless not error for the court to charge that the failure of an operator of an automobile to stop, etc., and render assistance to the person injured by the operation of the automobile on a public highway is a violation of a statute and constitutes negligence as a matter of law.
3. Code, § 105-2002, provides that "in every tort there may be aggravating circumstances, either in the act or the intention, and in that event the jury may give additional damages, either to deter the wrongdoer from repeating the trespass or as compensation for the wounded feelings of the plaintiff." It is a substantial statement of the law as provided in the Code section, where the judge charges that punitive damages are such as are given to "deter future similar occurrences, and also as damages for the wrong committed under the peculiarly...
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Head v. De Souse, A19A2284
...an award of punitive damages. See Langlois v. Wolford , 246 Ga. App. 209, 210-211 (1), 539 S.E.2d 565 (2000) ; Battle v. Kilcrease , 54 Ga. App. 808, 809-810, 189 S.E. 573 (1936). "[Those] cases are distinguishable from the present one, however, because the act of leaving the scene of the c......
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Rock v. McHenry
...Quarrier, 172 So.2d 17 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1965); Georgia: Cheevers v. Clark, 214 Ga.App. 866, 449 S.E.2d 528 (1994); Battle v. Kilcrease, 54 Ga.App. 808, 189 S.E. 573 (1936); Idaho: Shaddy v. Daley, 58 Idaho 536, 76 P.2d 279 (1938); Illinois: Peterson v. Henning, 116 Ill.App.3d 305, 72 Ill.De......
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Langlois v. Wolford
...Shipp, 195 Ga. 446, 24 S.E.2d 764 (1943); Bellamy v. Edwards, 181 Ga.App. 887, 889(3), 354 S.E.2d 434 (1987); Battle v. Kilcrease, 54 Ga.App. 808, 809-810(4), 189 S.E. 573 (1936). Thus, such act of leaving the scene of a collision without even speaking to the other party, as mandated by sta......
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Hamlett v. Carroll Fulmer Logistics Corp.
...for punitive damages that the person inflicting the damage was guilty of willful and intentional misconduct." Battle v. Kilcrease, 189 S.E. 573, 574 (Ga. Ct. App. 1936). "It is sufficient that the act be done under such circumstances as evinces an entire want of care and a conscious indiffe......