Whaley v. Sim Grady Machinery Co., 39737
| Decision Date | 19 November 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 39737,No. 2,39737,2 |
| Citation | 107 Ga.App. 96,129 S.E.2d 362 |
| Parties | Joseph WHALEY v. SIM GRADY MACHINERY COMPANY, Inc |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
The trial court did not err in denying the amended motion for new trial.
Joseph Whaley brought suit for damages in the amount of $568,426.77 against Sim Grady Machinery Company, Incorporated, alleging in substance that on the morning of December 30, 1958, an employee of the defendant while acting within the scope of his employment drove a truck owned by the defendant into the rear of a truck, temporarily parked along the curbing on Bay Street Extension in the City of Savannah, in which the plaintiff was sitting, thereby inflicting permanent injuries to the plaintiff. The defendant's answer denied the allegations of negligence specified in the petition, set forth an ordinance of the City of Savannah prohibiting parking of any kind on said street, and contended that the plaintiff's damages were directly and proximately caused by the negligence of the plaintiff himself in parking on said street in violation of the ordinance. Upon trial of the case, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant and to the denial of his amended motion for a new trial the plaintiff excepted, bringing the case to this court for review.
Cowan, Zeigler, Downing & McAleer, Richard T. Cowan, Savannah, for plaintiff in error.
Kirk McAlpin, Walter C. Hartridge, III, Savannah, for defendant in error.
1. Special ground 1 of the amended motion for new trial assigns error on the refusal of the trial court to allow plaintiff's counsel to ask the jury panel before selection of a jury the following questions:
'Are any of you engaged in the insurance business for yourselves or do any of you work directly or indirectly for an insurance company?
'Are you interested as a shareholder, stockholder, director, officer, employee or otherwise, in any insurance company issuing policies of insurance as injury to persons or property?'
In Leggett v. Brewton, 104 Ga.App. 580, 122 S.E.2d 469, this court in considering the identical questions set forth in this ground stated that the proper practice in qualifying the jury would be to confine the inquiry as to the relationship of the jurors to the particular insurance company or companies having a financial interest in the result of the litigation. The court there held, however, that, in the light of the right of counsel to inquire into matters which may effect the bias or prejudice of a prospective juror under Code § 59-705 as amended and since it did not appear from the ground that any juror on the panel was disqualified in the case, the error in expanding the questions on qualifying the jurors as to their relationship to any insurance company was harmless. Accordingly, under the ruling of the court in the Leggett case, supra, and in view of the fact that the questions which may or may not be propounded to prospective jurors under the provisions of Code § 59-705 as amended are largely within the discretion of the trial court (Atlanta Joint Terminals v. Knight, 98 Ga.App. 482(4), 106 S.E.2d 417, 79 A.L.R.2d 539), it cannot be said that the trial judge erred in this case in refusing to allow said questions to...
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...593; Hill v. State, 201 Ga. 300, 307(6), 39 S.E.2d 675; Evans v. State, 70 Ga.App. 500(1), 28 S.E.2d 671; Whaley v. Sim Grady Machinery Co., Inc., 107 Ga.App. 96, 98(5), 129 S.E.2d 362. (b) Photographs tending to show a relevant and material fact are not subject to an objection that their a......
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Whaley v. Sim Grady Machinery Co.
...certiorari to review the rulings of the Court of Appeals in Divisions 1, 2, and 3 of its opinion in the case of Whaley v. Sim Grady Machinery Co., 107 Ga.App. 96, 129 S.E.2d 362, wherein the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court overruling grounds 1, 2, and 3 of plaintif......