Williams v. Grier

• Decision Date: 08 July 1943
• Docket Number: 14543.
• Citation: 26 S.E.2d 698,196 Ga. 327
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. GRIER et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

26 S.E.2d 698

196 Ga. 327

WILLIAMS v. GRIER et al.

No. 14543.

Supreme Court of Georgia

July 8, 1943

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where a municipal ordinance prohibiting the parking of any automobile or other vehicle upon any paved street or sidewalk 'overnight' was violated by the parking of a motor-truck on a paved street at or near an intersection of streets overnight, the fact that the truck was allowed to remain during a portion of the following day in the same place where it had been so illegally parked during the nighttime would not constitute a continuing or a new violation of such ordinance, since it merely prohibited parking overnight and had no reference to such daytime parking.

(a) Accordingly, in the instant case, in which the plaintiff sued the owner of the truck and its agent for damages alleged to have been sustained by her in a collision of automobiles at the intersection of streets at or near which the motor-truck was parked, the petition did not show negligence with respect to the plaintiff in alleged violation of such municipal ordinance, it appearing from the allegations that the collision occurred during the afternoon, and not during the nighttime when the ordinance was being violated.

(b) Nor did the petition show violation of an ordinance providing that no person or garage or sales place should be allowed to use the streets for storing cars either day or night, since on proper construction of the allegations as to this matter it appeared only that the motor-truck was parked, and mere parking would not amount to storing within the meaning of such ordinance, even though the truck may have been allowed to remain in the same place overnight and during a portion of the following day, and the same practice may have continued for several months.

(c) The petition did not state a cause of action, so far as it was based on alleged violation of these two ordinances.

2. The plaintiff, however, could assert as negligence the violation of an ordinance prohibiting the parking of any automobile or other vehicle on any paved street at any place or in any other manner 'than is designated by painted diagrams thereon,' where in violation of the same a large motor-truck was parked at or near an intersection of streets and in such position and location as to obscure the view of motorists as they approached each other at a right angle in traveling upon the intersecting streets, and as a result of such obscurement the plaintiff while traveling in an automobile on one of such streets was injured in a collision between it and another automobile at such intersection.

(a) The causal connection between an original act of negligence and injury to another is not broken by the 'intervening' act of a third person, if the nature of such intervening act was such that it could reasonably have been anticipated or foreseen by the original wrong-doer.

(b) In this case, the allegations were sufficient to show that the act of the driver of the automobile which collided with the one in which the plaintiff was riding should have been anticipated or foreseen by the defendants as a result of their own negligence in parking the motor truck in violation of the ordinance, and this is true notwithstanding the driver of such automobile may have violated the law as to rate of speed at an intersection of streets.

(c) The petition stated a cause of action based on alleged negligence of the defendants in the violation of such ordinance.

3. The petition also stated a cause of action based on alleged negligence as a matter of fact, under the circumstances. The trial judge properly overruled the general demurrers to the petition, and the Court of Appeals erred in reversing that judgment.

The present case is before this court on grant of certiorari. The facts as shown by the record and as stated by the Court of Appeals are substantially as follows:

Mrs Virginia A. Williams sued Thomas Grier and Columbia Baking Company, for damages resulting from alleged negligence of defendants. The first four paragraphs of the petition allege that Thomas Grier resides in Emanuel County, and that Columbia Baking Company is a foreign corporation with its principal office in Fulton County, Georgia; that Green and Church Streets are paved streets in the City of Swainsboro Georgia; that defendants have damaged plaintiff in the sum of $15,000; that on the afternoon of May 25, 1941, plaintiff was riding on the rear seat of a Dodge automobile then being driven by her son in an easterly direction on Church Street in Swainsboro; that the automobile was not owned by the plaintiff, nor was it in her custody, control, or possession at the time of the injury. The petition further alleged:

'5. That plaintiff's said son completely stopped said automobile being so driven by him at said time and place at the intersection of Church and Green Streets in said City of Swainsboro, Georgia, in obedience to a stop sign located on said Church Street at or near the westerly side of said Green Street. That after her said son had so stopped said automobile and had looked for oncoming vehicles and traffic in each direction at said street intersection, and his pathway across said Green Street appearing to be clear, with no traffic approaching to his right or left, he drove and moved said Dodge automobile in which plaintiff was riding as aforesaid forward into said street intersection, and as it was crossing said Green Street another automobile driven by a negro in a northerly direction on said Green Street at a very high rate of speed collided with and struck with terrific force said Dodge automobile driven by plaintiff's son as aforesaid, greatly damaging and practically demolishing said automobile, and as a result thereof plaintiff was plainfully seriously, and permanently injured in and about her head, body, and limbs, and she sustained therefrom many severe wounds, bruises, and injuries, and has suffered and will continue to suffer permanently great pain and anguish, and immediately after plaintiff so receiving and sustaining said injuries therefrom she was carried to a hospital and was compelled to be confined in said hospital for several weeks for treatment of her said injuries and wounds. That said collision also resulted in injuries of a serious nature to your plaintiff's son, her son's wife, and to plaintiff's husband, all of whom were also riding in said Dodge automobile at said time and place, and said injuries to plaintiff's husband resulting in his death within a few days after said collision.

'6. That said defendant at the time of said collision carelessly and negligently had a large bakery motor-truck parked and stored at the westerly curb on said Green Street, at or near the intersection of said Green and Church Streets, in said City of Swainsboro, Georgia, with the front and pointed north, and in such a position, location, and manner so that said bakery truck did then and there obscure the view of plaintiff and her said son looking in a southerly direction and to his right along said Green Street at the time he stopped said Dodge automobile in obedience to said stop-sign at said intersection. That said Green Street was not a one-way street. That at the time of said collision said bakery motor-truck so negligently and carelessly stored and parked as aforesaid was owned by the defendant, Columbia Baking Company, a corporation, and was in the control, custody, and possession of its servant T. F. Grier, with the consent, knowledge, and acquiescence of the defendant, Columbia Baking Company, a corporation, and said bakery motor-truck was parked and stored as aforesaid by said defendant, Thomas Grier, also known as T. F. Grier, in the course of his duties in and about his employment by said defendant, Columbia Baking Company, a corporation.

'7. That said bakery motor-truck was parked and stored aforesaid prior to and at the time of said collision in violation of the city ordinances of the said City of Swainsboro, Georgia. That said bakery motor-truck was parked and stored as aforesaid on the night immediately prior to the date of said collision, and was carelessly and negligently allowed to remain by said defendants so parked and stored from that time until and after said collision, in violation of said city ordinance of said City of Swainsboro, Georgia.

'8. That said defendants had habitually, for several months prior to said collision, been parking and storing said bakery motor-truck in said place on Green Street carelessly and negligently, in violation of said city ordinances of the City of Swainsboro, Georgia, as aforesaid.

'9. That said habitual careless and negligent parking and storing of said bakery motor-truck on said Green Street at said street intersection as aforesaid obstructed the view of the travelling public on Green and Church Streets in said City of Swainsboro, Georgia, which said streets were at time of said collision heavily used by the travelling public day and night at time of said collision, motor-vehicles travelled frequently at high rates of speed at said place on said Green Street, and such parking and storing of said bakery truck at said place created a traffic hazard and a death trap, which was well known to said defendants, or by the exercise of due prudence and care should have been well known to said defendants.

'10. That said bakery motor-truck so parked and stored on said street as aforesaid was not placed in any painted diagrams as required by the city ordinance of the City of Swainsboro, Georgia, and particularly as required by one of such ordinances appearing as § 239 of the City Code of Swainsboro, Georgia, which will be more fully alleged hereinafter.

'11. That the careless and negligent parking and storing of said bakery...