Brawner v. Guyton
Brawner v. Guyton
Opinion of the Court
The only question before this court is, was the petition sufficient to withstand a general demurrer? Counsel for the defendant calls our attention to Fowler v. Southern Airlines Inc., 192 Ga. 845 (4) (16 S. E. 2d, 897), in which the court said: “No cause of action is stated in a petition which states mere legal conclusions with no facts alleged on which to base them; nor will the use of epithets supply the place of facts; nor are general and loose allegations, consisting merely of the statement of conclusions, without averring the facts upon which the conclusions are based, sufficiently definite to raise an issue.”
Counsel also calls our attention to Jones v. Ezell, 134 Ga. 553 (5) (68 S. E. 303): “General and loose allegations, consisting merely of the statement of conclusions, without averring the facts upon which the conclusions are based, are too indefinite to raise an issue.”
Counsel further calls our attention to the case of Armour & Co. v. Miller, 39 Ga. App. 228 (3) (147 S. E. 184): “In pleading his case the plaintiff must set forth wherein the defendant was negligent, and a mere general averment that he was negligent in furnishing an unwholesome food product will not be sufficient. While the doctrine res ipsa loquitur may, in a proper case, be invoked as a rule of evidence to aid in proving the case as laid, it can not be relied upon as an aid to defective pleadings.”
Upon a study of the cases cited, regarding their facts and pleadings, as compared with the instant case under its alleged facts and pleadings, we do not think the court erred in overruling the general demurrer. Code § 105-1302 authorizes the widow to recover for the homicide of her husband. The question of negligence, ordinary care, and the amount of the recovery, is a jury question. The petition in the instant case alleges, in general terms at least, how the husband of the plaintiff came to his death; that it was the negligence of the defendant in pointing a pistol at the deceased and firing therefrom a bullet into the body of the deceased which caused his death. In such an action the plaintiff is not required to negative contributory negligence on the part of, in this case, the deceased. See, in this connection, Fisher Motor Co. v. Seymour & Allen, 9 Ga. App. 465 (1) (71 S. E. 764).
The Supreme Court, in Boswell v. Barnhart, 96 Ga. 521, 523
The court did not err in overruling the general demurrer to the petition.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.