DuPree v. Babcock
DuPree v. Babcock
Opinion of the Court
1. The defendant Mrs. DuPree did not assign error on the judgment overruling her general and special demurrers and such judgment is therefore established as the law of the case. See Section 2 of the act of 1957 (Ga. L. 1957, pp. 224, 229; Code, Ann., § 6-701) which provides that such judgment is now reviewable when a writ of error is first presented in this court, and all questions which may be presented in the main bill of exceptions or in a cross-bill of exceptions, but are not, are deemed waived. Hodgkins v. Marshall, 102 Ga. 191 (1) (29 S. E. 174). See also Carmichael Tile Co. v. McClelland, 213 Ga. 656 (2) (100 S. E. 2d 902).
2. The following allegations of the petition were admitted by the defendants’ answer: “The defendants, against whom this action is brought, are Mrs. Lillian B. DuPree, who resides at 1759 Wilmont Drive, N. E., DeKalb County, Georgia, and who does business under the name of the ‘Clovis Club’, and Eugene J. Brandt, who resides at 1079 Burton Drive, N.E., DeKalb- County, Georgia. Said defendants are subject to the jurisdiction of this court. On or about March 28, 1957, the
The defendant’s contentions are: 1. The case is not one for summary judgment since she did not admit, but expressly denied, the allegations of the petition that: “The defendant Brandt in shooting said pistol at all times referred to herein was acting within the scope of his employment by the defendant Mrs. Lillian B. DuPree.” and 2. The case is not one for summary judgment because, even if liability exists and is adjudicated by summary judgment adverse to her, the same issues would have to be tried and presented to the jury in view of the allegations in the petition as to malice and the prayers for exemplary damages.
Taking the above contentions of the defendant Mrs. DuPree in the order set forth above it is seen that what she is really seeking to assert in her first contention is that although the defendant Brandt was her employee, agent and servant, and was charged with the duty of “promoting the sale of alcoholic beverages, the duty of seeing that the customers were entertained, the duty of seeing that the ‘Club’ closed at an established time, and the duty of supervising other employees,” and was so engaged during the early hours of the morning when the plaintiff w&s admittedly injured, at least to some extent, that when he injured the plaintiff in Mrs. DuPree’s place of business he had stepped out of his role as agent, servant and employee and solely as an individual undertaking began to explode blanks in the pistol and was so engaged when the plaintiff was injured.
“If the assault arose out of the business which the employee was authorized to transact and was so closely connected thereto 'as to form a part thereof, the company would be liable. If the assault did not so arise and was so remote as to be an act of the employee alone, the master would not be liable.” Schwartz v. Nunnally Co., 60 Ga. App. 858, 860 (5 S. E. 2d 91). “An em
Applying this law to the facts alleged and admitted in the present case where admittedly the defendant Brandt was engaged in the scope of his employment up until the time he began firing the pistol or dummy machine gun and where his duties included entertaining the customers in Mrs. DuPree’s establishment, and where he fired the gun as a “prank” in the presence of .such customers it cannot be denied that he was in fact acting within the scope of his employment when he fired the “blanks” so close to the plaintiff as to burn him as the hot gunpowder exploded. Accordingly, this contention of the defendant Mrs.
The second contention, that in view of the allegations of malice and the prayers for exemplary damages the same issues would have to be presented to the jury, is palpably without merit because the summary judgment as to the issue of liability would exclude from the necessary evidence to prove the plaintiff’s case—evidence as to the duties of the defendant Brandt and whether he was engaged in the scope of his employment at the time in question thereby excluding the necessity of presenting evidence to support the doctrine of respondeat superior. It 'would also exclude the necessity of proving that Brandt had actually shot the plaintiff.
The trial court did not err in sustaining the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment as to the issue of liability and such judgment must be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I think the court erred in sustaining the motion for a summary judgment as to liability. Neither the plaintiff in the trial court in his affidavit nor the defendant DuPree in her answer stated as a fact that at the time the employee discharged the gun he was acting in the course of his employment. The overruling of the demurrers to the petition meant only that the allegations of the petition were to be accepted as trae on' demurrer, and not as matters of fact. The ruling on the demurrers adjudicated for one thing, that if the facts alleged were found to be true by a jury, the jury would be authorized but not required to find that Brandt was acting in the scope of his employment at the time he discharged the gun. The ruling of the majority in this case will forever take away from a jury the right and power to decide anything but that a defendant is liable where demurrers to a petition have been overruled and the question to be decided is whether the act of an employee during the period of employment is performed in the course of the employment and on the business of the employer. The Schwartz and Cohn cases cited in the majority opinion mean only that the petitions therein set forth causes of action.
Reference
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