Hollingsworth v. Harris
| Decision Date | 20 September 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 41419,No. 1,41419,1 |
| Citation | 112 Ga.App. 290,145 S.E.2d 52 |
| Parties | S. R. HOLLINGSWORTH v. H. B. HARRIS |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
Negligence, to be actionable, must be a part of the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. If a petition shows that the injury would have occurred notwithstanding the acts of negligence of the defendant, there can be no recovery. Allegations that this defendant was negligent in stopping his truck in the roadway so as to block the view of one following as to vehicles approaching from the opposite direction, but which also show that the plaintiff, who made a U-turn in the street, was run down by an approaching car, and that whether the defendant's truck had been moving or not the plaintiff's view would have been obstructed until he reached the center line of the roadway but not thereafter, do not show any causal connection between the stopping of the truck and the plaintiff's injuries.
The plaintiff Harris, a Bibb County deputy sheriff, was proceeding north on Bloomfield Drive, an 18-foot city street in Macon, Georgia, at a speed of 30 miles per hour, when he observed the defendant's dump truck, measuring 8 X 15 X 7 feet, stopped in front of a residence driveway in such manner as to block the right half of the roadway. Its left wheels were approximately in the center of the road. Plaintiff continued to within 150 feet of the stopped truck at which point he met an automobile driven by defendant Darity proceeding in the opposite direction at the illegal spped of 75 miles per hour. The plaintiff immediately made a U-turn in the street for the purpose of giving chase to Darity, and had just completed his turn into the south-bound lane at a then speed of 5 miles per hour when an automobile operated by the defendant Smith, who was racing with Darity and also proceeding in the same direction at approximately 75 miles per hour, collided with the motorcycle and inflicted serious injuries upon the plaintiff. Negligence is charged against Hollingsworth in stopping his truck in such manner as to block the entire right lane of the road when there was ample room to pull it off the roadway onto a 6-foot shoulder; in failing to put out any warning or signaling devices; in so stopping the truck as to obstruct the vision of motorists (it being also alleged that the road turned sharply to the right approximately 250 feet above the point where the truck was stopped), and in failing to anticipate that the defendants Smith and Darity would violate traffic regulations while this defendant was himself not in the exercise of ordinary diligence.
Demurrers of the defendant Hollingsworth to the petition were overruled, and the exception is to this judgment.
C. Cloud Morgan, Macon, for plaintiff in error.
W. O. Cooper, Jr., Jones & McKenney, Neal D. McKenney, Macon, for defendant in error.
It is not alleged that the defendant violated any ordinance of the City of Macon in stopping the dump truck in front of a residence so as to block the north-bound traveled portion of the roadway. No violation of Code Ann. § 68-1670(a)(15) prohibiting the stopping of a motor vehicle within 12 feet of the center of a highway is stated since it is not alleged that the street in question is a State-aid road, and is alleged that it is within the corporate limits of a city (See Payne v. A. B. C. Truck Lines, Inc., 189 Ga. 112, 5 S.E.2d 241), nor is there a violation of Code Ann. § 68-1668 since the location is within a residential district. However, it cannot be said as a matter of law that stopping a motor vehicle on a...
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Cunningham v. National Service Industries, Inc., 69923
...plaintiff into the intersection without being certain that no oncoming traffic was approaching." In a similar case, Hollingsworth v. Harris, 112 Ga.App. 290, 145 S.E.2d 52, the defendant had parked a truck on the right hand side of a street, apparently not in violation of any ordinance, and......
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...14(3), 650 S.E.2d 709 (2007); Parris v. Pledger Ins. Agency, 180 Ga.App. 437, 439(2), 348 S.E.2d 924 (1986); Hollingsworth v. Harris, 112 Ga.App. 290, 293, 145 S.E.2d 52 (1965); Western & Atlantic R. v. Crawford, 47 Ga.App. 591, 593(1), 170 S.E. 824 (1933). See Hylton v. American Assn. etc.......
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Storer Communications, Inc. v. Burns
...of, death, would have occurred if her uncontrolled course of movement had not been altered by the Suburban. Cf. Hollingsworth v. Harris, 112 Ga.App. 290, 145 S.E.2d 52 (1965). If the presence of the Suburban proximately contributed to her death (as opposed to injury short of death), even if......
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Jones v. Miles Laboratories, Inc., 88-8921
...injury would have occurred regardless of the defendant's negligence, then the plaintiff cannot recover. Hollingsworth v. Harris, 145 S.E.2d 52, 112 Ga.App. 290 (1965); Witcher v. Studdard, 103 S.E.2d 646, 97 Ga.App. 513 (1958). In such a situation, the defendant's actions would not have bee......