Rhodes v. Perlis, s. 33334
| Decision Date | 27 January 1951 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 33334,No. 1,33335,s. 33334,1 |
| Citation | 63 S.E.2d 457,83 Ga.App. 312 |
| Parties | RHODES v. PERLIS (two cases) |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court.
The owner of a store building abutting a public sidewalk in a municipality is not liable to a member of the public for injuries resulting from a defect in such sidewalk which was not caused or created by the abutting owner.
Case No. 33334 is on exception to the sustaining of the general demurrer to the petition of the husband for damages for loss of services of his wife as a result of the alleged negligence of the defendant, the negligence charged to the defendant being the same in case No. 33335. Case No. 33335 is on exception to the sustaining of the general demurrer to the petition of Mrs. L. P. Rhodes for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by defendant's negligence. Both petitioners charged that the defendant owned and operated a store building abutting a sidewalk in the City of Cordele, Georgia, and that the defendant owned the sidewalk abutting the store building; that Mrs. Rhodes was injured when she stepped into a hole in the sidewalk abutting the store building; that defendant had ample notice of said hole and its defective condition and should have fixed it.
Benjamin Zeesman, Cordele, for plaintiff in error.
Rex T. Reeves, Haas & Hurt, Atlanta, Wright & Reddick, Cordele, for defendant in error.
In the absence of an allegation to the contrary, the petition will be construed against the pleaders as alleging that the sidewalk abutting the defendant's store building was a public sidewalk. In such case the sidewalk is subject to an easement in favor of the public for the use of the sidewalk, even if ownership of the fee to the sidewalk is in the abutting property owner. Hanbury et al. v. Woodward Lumber Co., 98 Ga. 54, 26 S.E. 477; Harrold Brothers et al. v. City, Mayor, etc., of Americus, 142 Ga. 686, 83 S.E. 534; Long v. Faulkner et al., 151 Ga. 837, 108 S.E 370. The law places upon a municipality the duty of keeping its sidewalks safe for travel in the ordinary manner. Code, § 69-301; Code, § 69-303, Hammock v. City Council of Augusta, 1951, Ga.App., 63 S.E.2d 290. The placing of such responsibility upon municipalities relieves an abutting property owner unless he caused or actively participated in causing the obstruction or defect in the street or sidewalk. Ellis v. Southern Grocery Stores, Inc., 46 Ga.App. 254, 167 S.E. 324; ...
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Nathan v. Oakland Park Supermarket, Inc., 45573
...whether the 'sidewalk' was a public one (as to which see Ellis v. Southern Grocery Stores, 46 Ga.App. 254, 167 S.E. 324; Rhodes v. Perlis, 83 Ga.App. 312, 63 S.E.2d 457; Crowe v. Mason, 86 Ga.App. 832(2), 72 S.E.2d 787; City of Decatur v. Robertson, 85 Ga.App. 747, 754, 70 S.E.2d 135, and R......
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Motel Properties, Inc. v. Miller
...at 420, 183 S.E.2d 923.5 Todd distinguished its holding from Mason v. Crowe, 88 Ga.App. 191, 76 S.E.2d 432 (1953) and Rhodes v. Perlis, 83 Ga.App. 312, 63 S.E.2d 457 (1951) on the basis that those opinions involved "mere pedestrians using the sidewalk as opposed to invitees to premises such......
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Reed v. Batson-Cook Co.
...owner unless he caused or actively participated in causing the obstruction or defect in the street or sidewalk.' Rhodes v. Perlis, 83 Ga.App. 312, 313, 63 S.E.2d 457, 458. The cases cited by the plaintiff are also authority for this rule. For, as was held in Georgia Ry. & Electric Co. v. To......