Gyles, Inc. v. Turner

Sognier, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur specially. I cannot agree that Atkinson v. Kirchoff Enterprises, Inc., 181 Ga. App. 139 (351 SE2d 477) (1986), is so easily distinguished from the case at bar. I dissented in Atkinson because it was clear to me that the injured party there “failed to exercise due diligence for her own safety, despite her recognition and appreciation of a known danger,” when she voluntarily chose to “pick” her way through debris littering a sidewalk. In fact, as between deliberately walking through debris which one should know is dangerous, and the situation presented here, to wit: negligently tripping on a doorsill of which one is aware, if either case should be heard by a jury, in my view the latter seems more deserving than the former. Nevertheless, in both cases the injured party’s knowledge is at least equal to that of the proprietor’s, and being committed to the rule that the true ground of the proprietor’s liability is his superior knowledge of the hazard, Roberts v. Gardens Services, Inc., 182 Ga. App. 573 (356 SE2d 669) (1987), I concur in the judgment.