White v. Kroger Co., 77611

• Decision Date: 16 February 1989
• Docket Number: No. 77611,77611
• Citation: 190 Ga.App. 348,378 S.E.2d 732
• Parties: WHITE et al. v. KROGER COMPANY.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 732

378 S.E.2d 732

190 Ga.App. 348

WHITE et al. v. KROGER COMPANY.

No. 77611.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Feb. 16, 1989.

David A. Swift, Decatur, for appellants.

Richter, Willis & McKenzie, Edward L. Long, Jr., La Grange, Beck, Owen & Murray, Samuel A. Murray, Griffin, for appellee.

BIRDSONG, Judge.

Grant of Summary Judgment. Undisputed facts reflect that in the summer of 1984, Mr. and Mrs. White had completed shopping for groceries at a Kroger store in Newnan. After loading the groceries into the car and trying to depart the parking area, it was determined that the car battery was "dead." Mr. White left his family in the car while seeking help in getting the car started. It being summer, the interior of the car became oppressively hot and Mrs. White gave permission for her children to exit the vehicle but to stand alongside. Apparently her four-year-old William wanted a printed religious tract available for free from a rack immediately outside and adjacent to the entrance to the Kroger store. To the mother's consternation, William and his nine-year-old sister proceeded from the side of the car to the entrance to the Kroger store to claim one of the tracts. The 9-year-old sister apparently had a firm grasp of the 4-year-old's hand.

Leading from the Kroger store entrance toward the parking lot was a ramp that allowed shoppers to trundle carts across the sidewalk, down the ramp, across a roadway and into the parking lot to the purchaser's car. There was no painted or otherwise marked pedestrian crosswalk from the end of the ramp to the edge of the parking lot. Immediately to the left and right of the entrance door, the mall had a covered sidewalk. Approximately 20-25 yards to the left of the main entrance to the Kroger store, in the front wall of the store, there was a small half door that shoppers could use to push shopping carts out onto the sidewalk, there to remain until the shoppers could reclaim their autos and drive up to the reserved parcel pick-up area. From the edge of the ramp to the left end of the Kroger store alongside the sidewalk, there was a curb. Along this curb, in the roadway, there was a painted area restricted to temporary parking for customers picking up parcels. This painted area was delineated not only by painted stripes but also by two four-foot high signs, one at each end of the parcel pick-up area warning patrons that parking was not permitted except for parcel pick-up.

While Mr. White was absent looking for help to start the car and after young William and his sister had arrived at the front entrance to the Kroger store, the co-defendant, John Lee Weathers, entered the shopping center and drove down the main entrance of the center through the parking lot to a "T" intersection with the roadway passing in front of the several stores, including the Kroger store. The entrance door and ramp to the Kroger store were directly to Weathers' left front. Weathers stopped at the "T" intersection, looked right and left and seeing no oncoming traffic from either direction, turned left and passed the entrance and ramp to the Kroger store. Weathers remembered seeing Mr. White on his left at the side of a car in the parking lot. As he passed the parcel pick-up area, he felt a bump but did not see the cause of the bump. In fact, the car had made contact with 4-year-old William at the right front fender-bumper area, knocked him down, and passed over him.

Mrs. White exited her automobile when she saw the 9-year-old and the 4-year-old cross the roadway in front of Kroger. She was going after the two children. It was apparent that young William had seen his father in the parking lot and wanted to go to him. William pulled his hand free from his sister and...