Shaddix v. Eberhart, s. 25911, 25949.

• Decision Date: 13 March 1937
• Docket Number: Nos. 25911, 25949.,s. 25911, 25949.
• Citation: 190 S.E. 408,55 Ga.App. 498
• Parties: SHADDIX . v. EBERHART. EBERHART . v. SHADDIX.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

55 Ga.App. 498

190 S.E. 408

SHADDIX .

v.EBERHART.

EBERHART .

v.SHADDIX.

Nos. 25911, 25949.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

March 13, 1937.

Syllabus by Editorial Staff.

SUTTON, J., dissenting in part

Error from Superior Court, Cobb County; J. H. Hawkins, Judge.

Action by Lena Shaddix against A. O. Eberhart. From a judgment for defendant on demurrer, plaintiff brings error and defendant brings a cross-bill of exceptions.

Reversed on main bill and affirmed on cross-bill.

Wm. A. Thomas, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Carmichael & Grove, of Marietta, for defendant in error.

STEPHENS, Presiding Judge.

1. Knowledge by a tenant that a portion of a floor in a house on the rented premises is in a deteriorated and rotten condition, and is dangerous and unsafe for use, does not necessarily and as a matter of law render the tenant, in walking on an adjacent portion of the floor^s which does not appear to be rotten and out of repair but which appears to the tenant to be sound and walk-worthy, guilty of negligence barring a recovery against the landlord for injuries resulting to the tenant from the falling in of the floor on which the tenant was walking, where the tenant had no knowledge that the portion of the floor on which she was walking and which fell in with her was in a dangerous and unsafe condition. Wolbe v. Jossey, 42 Ga.App. 612, 157 S.E. 233. Yancey v. Peters, 49 Ga.App. 128, 174 S.E. 182, 183, is distinguishable. In that case, where it was held that the plaintiff tenant was barred by her own negligence of a recovery for injuries caused by a hearth on which she had stepped falling in, it appeared that the plaintiff had knowledge that the hearth was in a "faulty * * * and * * * in a weak and dangerous condition."

2. Where a landlord has received notice of a defect in any portion of the rented premises which it is his duty to repair, he is chargeable with notice of any defect in the condition of any adjacent portion of the premises which, when repairing the defect of which he had notice, he could discover in the exercise of ordinary care, and where later he fails, after notice to exercise ordinary care in making the required repairs, he is guilty of negligence and is liable for injuries received by the tenant as the proximate result of such negligence.

3. Where, in a petition as amended, it is alleged that the plaintiff was a tenant of the defendant, that a portion of the front porch leading from the house to the front steps, with the exception of...