50 Ga. App. 640 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1935
The plaintiff sued a corporation operating a retail store for $2,000 damages because of humiliation, pain, and shock to her nervous sj^stem, by reason of language directed to her, in the presence of customers and clerks, by the manager of the store, “in charge [of] the business of the defendant and [so] acting at the time complained of.” Other material averments of the petition were: that the plaintiffs husband bought a pair of hose from the defendant at this store; that when she went there on the same date for the purpose of exchanging them for another pair and opened the package, the manager said “They are our' hose and came from this store and were stolen, and you are going to give them back,” to which she replied, “It may be I am in the wrong store,” and he then shouted at her in a loud and angry voice, “They came from this store and were stolen.” She further alleged that no one had stolen the goods; that the accusation was utterly untrue, recklessly, wilfully, and wantonly made, and was unprovoked and unjustifiable; and that she was thus charged with a crime under the laws of Georgia by being in possession of stolen goods. She excepts to the dismissal of her petition on the grounds of general demurrer, that no cause of action.was stated, and that no facts were shown which would authorize a recovery for slander.
1. “A corporation is not liable for damages resulting from the speaking of false, malicious, or defamatory words by one of its agents, even where in uttering such words the speaker was acting for the benefit of the corporation and within the scope of the duties of his agency, unless it affirmatively appears that the agent was expressly directed or authorized by the corporation to speak the words in question.” Behre v. National Cash Register Co., 100 Ga.
2. In LeMaster v. Millers, 33 Ga. App. 451 (126 S. E. 875), this court held that: “One who maintains a mercantile establishment for the purpose of selling goods owes a duty to a customer, lawfully in his store by his implied invitation for the purpose of transacting business, to protect the customer against the use of any unprovoked and unjustifiable opprobrious and insulting and abusive words by a clerk employed by him to deal with customers, tending to humiliate, mortify, and wound the feelings of the customer. . . A petition as amended which alleges that the plaintiff, while present in the defendant’s store as a customer, desiring to make a purchase from the defendant, was, in a loud and angry tone which could be heard by other customers present, falsely and unjustly accused by one of the defendant’s clerks of having in a handbag a certain article belonging to the defendant, which charge humiliated and embarrassed the plaintiff, set out a cause of action for a wilful and intentional tort.” The allegations in the instant case as to the actions of the defendant’s manager, in charge of its business and so acting at the time, bring it within this ruling and the ruling in the 1st paragraph of the decision in Hazelrigs v. High Co.,
Judgment reversed.
