Haralson County v. Hamrick, 19907.

• Decision Date: 18 February 1930
• Docket Number: No. 19907.,19907.
• Citation: 41 Ga.App. 196,152 S.E. 583
• Parties: HARALSON COUNTY . v. HAMRICK.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

41 Ga.App. 196

152 S.E. 583

HARALSON COUNTY .

v.HAMRICK.

No. 19907.

Court of Appeals of Georgia,

Division No. 2.

Feb. 18, 1930.

Syllabus by Editorial Staff.

Error from Superior Court, Haralson County; Price Edwards, Judge.

Action by Mrs. M. F. Hamrick against Haralson County. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error.

Reversed.

See, also, 152 S. E. 581.

E. S. Griffith, Walter Matthews, and J. S. Edwards, all of Buchanan, for plaintiff in error.

H. J. McBride, of Tallapoosa, for defendant in error.Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

STEPHENS, J.

1. Whether a county is under any duty to post a notice giving warning to the traveling public of the defective condition of a bridge, a failure of the county authorities so to do, after having had notice of the dangerous defect in the bridge, is a fact relevant to a determination of whether a traveler, injured by reason of the defective condition of the bridge, was in the exercise of due care and diligence. In a petition in a suit against a county, wherein the plaintiff sought to recover damages because of the homicide of her son caused by a defect in a bridge in a public highway, an allegation that the county authorities had failed to erect any signs to warn the deceased of the dangerous condition of the bridge, although it was alleged in the petition that this failure constituted negligence on the part of the defendant, was not subject to demurrer on the ground that no legal obligation rested upon the defendant to erect the alleged notice. The petition set out a cause of action, and was good against the general and special demurrers.

2. Since the dependency on a child by a parent which gives to the parent a right to recover for the homicide of the child need not be a total dependency, but may be only a partial dependency, and since a partial dependency by the parent upon the child is sufficient to establish dependency in the sense of the statute where the child makes substantial contributions to the parent's support (Western Union Tel. Co. v. Harris, 6 Ga. App. 260, 261, 64 S. E. 1123), it follows that, upon the trial of a suit brought by a mother to recover for the homicide of her son, upon whom it is alleged she was dependent at the time of the death, and who, it is alleged, contributed substantially to her support, a charge of the court that it is not necessary for the plaintiff to show that she was "entirely dependent upon her son, but it must appear that she was dependent upon him to a certain extent, " is...