Stanton v. Grubb, 42232

• Decision Date: 27 September 1966
• Docket Number: No. 3,No. 42232,42232,3
• Citation: 114 Ga.App. 350,151 S.E.2d 237
• Parties: Olin M. STANTON et al. v. Jane C. GRUBB
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 237

151 S.E.2d 237

114 Ga.App. 350

Olin M. STANTON et al. v.Jane C. GRUBB.

No. 42232.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 3.

Sept. 27, 1966.

R. Beverly Irwin, Jack M. Smith, Atlanta, for appellant.

Long, Weinberg & Ansley, Palmer H. Ansley, Atlanta, for appellee.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

JORDAN, Judge.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the trial court sustaining the defendant's oral motions in the nature of a general demurrer to the petitions of the plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Olin M. Stanton, seeking to recover damages arising out of personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Stanton when she slipped and fell while entering the basement of the defendant's home to which the plaintiffs had been invited on a social visit.The petition alleged that other guests of the defendant had tracked water and debris into the basement from the defendant's swimming pool and the defendant was charged with negligence in the following particulars: '(a) In maintaining said floor in her home adjacent to said swimming pool at said time and place in a slippery and unsafe condition for people who might walk into the basement of her said home; (b) In not mopping up the water being tracked from said swimming pool into the basement of her home; (c) In not warning your petitioner's wife that said water had been tracked into the basement at said time and place and that she was likely to fall on said slippery floor as a result thereof; (d) In failing to remove the water and debris from the floor in said basement in which petitioner's wife was walking at said time and place; (e) In failing to warn petitioner's said wife of the slippery and unsafe condition of the floor at said time and place; (f) In failing to provide sufficient light or lighting in said basement and playroom in said home at said time and place; (g) In failing to provide a handrail or other precautionary measures adjacent to said swimming pool in said basement; (h) In failing to provide a pad, mat, carpet or other instrument in said basement upon which your petitioner's wife could step without falling and slipping as herein alleged.'Held:

1.The legal status of Mrs. Stanton as an invited social visitor in the home of the defendant was that of a licensee and not an invitee, no special mutuality of interest being alleged (Hall v. Capps, 52 Ga.App. 150(3, 4), 182 S.E. 625;Martin v. Henson, 95 Ga.App. 715, 99 S.E.2d 251;Campbell v. Eubanks, 107 Ga.App. 527, 130 S.E.2d 832); and since the...