McKown v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.

• Decision Date: 16 February 1959
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 37527,37527,1
• Citation: 99 Ga.App. 120,107 S.E.2d 883
• Parties: Novle McKOWN v. GREAT ATLANTIC & PACIFIC TEA COMPANY et al
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 883

107 S.E.2d 883

99 Ga.App. 120

Novle McKOWN v. GREAT ATLANTIC & PACIFIC TEA COMPANY et al.

No. 37527.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

Feb. 16, 1959.

Syllabus by the Court

1, 2. The plaintiff's petition did not set forth a cause of action for slander against either the corporate defendant or its store manager.

3. The language used by the remaining defendant, Mrs. Edna Griffin Yawn, when construed in connection with the innuendo alleged in the petition, supported an action for slander as against general demurrer.

4. Count 2 of the plaintiff's petition did not set forth a cause of action for invasion of privacy as against the defendants' general demurrers.

Mrs. Novie McKown sued the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company; J. G. Steele, a store manager; and Mrs. Edna Griffin Yawn, a cashier in the store managed by Steele for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, to recover for an alleged slander and in a separate count of the same petition to recover for an alleged invasion of privacy. Each defendant filed separate demurrers to each count of the petition in which it was alleged that such count of the petition failed to set forth a cause of action against the demurrant. The trial court sustained the demurrers of each defendant, and the plaintiff now excepts to such judgment adverse to her.

McCord & Cooper, William H. Cooper, Jr., Hapeville, for plaintiff in error.

Bryan, Carter, Ansley & Smith, W. Colquitt Carter, John S. Langford, Jr., Atlanta, for defendants in error.

NICHOLS, Judge.

The plaintiff's petition, omitting formal parts, alleged the following with reference to the transaction out of which case sub judice arose: 'That on or about November 4, 1957, petitioner purchased some groceries from defendant corporation store at 200 N. Church Street, East Point, Georgia. That upon completion of shopping for said groceries, petitioner requested a pen from defendant, Mrs. Yawn, an agent and servant of defendant corporation, who was a cashier in said corporation's said store for the purpose of writing a check to pay for the said groceries. That said Mrs. Yawn directed petitioner to go [to] the office in the said store, and use the pen there. That the pen in the office was without ink, and upon being informed of that fact, the said defendant referred petitioner to the coffee counter in said store, as which place petitioner found a pen. That thereupon petitioner proceeded to the said office where space was available to write a check, which petitioner did. That when petitioner had finished writing the said check, another lady, the name of whom is not known to petitioner was standing by petitioner, and asked for the pen. Petitioner thereupon handed the pen to the said lady, walked to the checker, checked out her groceries, paid for them and departed. That during the entire transaction, defendant Mrs. Yawn watched and waited for petitioner to find the pen, and write the check. That on or about November 5, 1957, defendant Mrs. Edna Griffin Yawn, agent and servant of defendant corporation, came to the place of employment of petitioner, to wit: The dental office of Dr. L. M. Hewitt at 757 Virginia Avenue, Hapeville, Georgia, and stated that the defendant Steele had jumped on her for petitioner's taking the pen and had sent defendant Mrs. Yawn to ask petitioner if she had put the pen in her bag. That at the said time and place, the said slanderous accusation and remarks were made in the waiting room of the said dental office, and in the presence of a large number of patients of petitioner's employer. That said slanderous accusation and remarks were humiliating and most embarrassing to petitioner, and made her very nervous and upset, necessitating her being treated by her physician, D. James Hughs, M.D. That said accusation is and was at the said time and place untrue. That the defendant J. G. Steele is and was at the said time manager of the said defendant corporation's store, and as such was agent and servant of said defendant corporation, and acting within the scope and authority of his employment and engaged in the prosecution of his master's business, and as such had the authority to send and direct defendant Mrs. Yawn to the place of employment of petitioner. That as such manager, servant and agent of defendant corporation, said defendant Steele was acting within the scope and authority and was prosecuting his master's business when he directed defendant Mrs. Yawn to utter said slanderous accusations and false remarks. That the defendant Mrs. Yawn uttered said remarks which constituted slander in the presence of others, and that said remarks accused petitioner of stealing said pen, removing it from the store, and by innuendo, and insinuation, of secreting the pen in her bag. That such accusation constitutes slander per se.' The plaintiff sought to recover in the first count of her petition for slander, and in the second count for an invasion of privacy.

1. "A corporation is not liable for damages resulting from the speaking of false, malicious, or defamatory words by one of its agents, even when in uttering such words the speaker was acting for the benefit of...