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49 Ga. App. 515

Elliott v. Stone Baking Co.

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided September 18, 1934

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1934-09-18

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“1. Where, as the proximate result of an injury upon his head caused by the negligence of another, the person injured becomes insane and bereft of reason, and while in this condition and as a result thereof he takes his own life, his act is not a voluntary one, but is involuntary, and is not an act which breaks the causal connection between the homicide and the act which caused the injury, and the latter act is the proximate cause of the homicide. [Citations]. 2. Where it is alleged in the petition in a suit by a wife to recover for the homicide of her husband that he received physical injuries about the head as a result of the defendant's negligence in hitting him with an automobile, that the injuries caused him to become mentally irresponsible and insane, that while in this insane condition and as a result of this condition, he killed himself by shooting himself in the head, that his death was proximately caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant, and that the plaintiff was therefore damaged in the amount of the value of the husband's life, the petition set out a cause of action.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 115 Ga. App. 301 - Appling v. Jones

Relies on Southern Railway Co. v. Webb · People v. Lewis · Accident Ins Co of North America v. Crandal

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1934-09-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently May 2017

6 state decisions

20193419401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Stephens, J.

¶11. Where, as the proximate result of an injury upon Ms head caused by the negligence of another, the person injured becomes insane and bereft of reason, and while in this condition and as a result thereof he takes his own life, his act is not a voluntary one, but is involuntary, and is not an act which breaks the causal connection between the homicide and the act which caused the injury, and the latter act is the proximate cause of the homicide. Green on Proximate Cause, 37; Accident Ins. Co. v. Crandal, 120 U. S. 527, 531 (7 Sup. Ct. 685, 30 L. *516ed. 740); Life Association v. Waller, 57 Ga. 533; Southern Railway Co. v. Webb, 116 Ga. 152 (42 S. E. 395, 59 L. R. A. 109); People v. Lewis, 124 Cal. 551 (3) (57 Pac. 470, 45 L. R. A. 783); Austin W. Jones Co. v. State, 122 Me. 214 (119 Atl. 577); Bishop v. St. Paul City Ry. Co., 48 Minn. 26 (50 N. W. 927).

Decided September 18, 1934.Burress & Dillard, for plaintiff. Sidney Smith, for defendant.

¶22. Where it is alleged in the petition in a suit by a wife to recover for the homicide of her husband that he received physical injuries about the head as a result of the defendant’s negligence in hitting him with an automobile, that the injuries caused him to become mentally irresponsible and insane, that while in this insane condition and as a result of this condition, he killed himself by shooting himself in the head, that his death was proximately caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant, and that the plaintiff was therefore damaged in the amount of the value of the husband’s life, the petition set out a cause of action.

¶33. The court erred in sustaining the demurrer to the petition.

¶4Judgment reversed.

Jenkins, P. J., and Sutton, J., concur.
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