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Georgia’s common carrier duties are laid out in Georgia Title Code 46 Chapter 9. Common carriers – or companies that transport people – must “exercise extraordinary diligence to protect the lives and persons of his passengers but is not liable for injuries to them after having used such diligence.”
Because diligence – depending on the specificity of the law – can be a subjective concept, there aren’t necessarily rubrics that define which safety measures or preventative actions meet the extraordinary diligence threshold.
Different types of diligence are often defined loosely:
· Necessary diligence – The care you need to exert to not be considered negligent if someone is injured
· Great diligence or extraordinary diligence – What a particularly careful person would do to protect their safety and the safety of others
· Ordinary diligence – Steps someone of average prudence would take to protect their own safety or property
· Slight diligence – The effort someone of below-average prudence would put into protecting their own safety or property
· Special diligence – The level of care a specialist in a particular field would put into preventing injuries or damage to property
A claim that would fail against a private individual who is only required to exercise ordinary diligence might succeed against a common carrier required to exercise extraordinary diligence.
How Should Businesses Determine the Appropriate Level of Diligence?
Duties of care aren’t always easy to quantify. In medical malpractice cases, an expert in the defendant’s field of medicine is brought in to establish what would be the appropriate course of action given the context of the medical issue in question. There often aren’t guidebooks for common carriers that say, “If you implement this specific policy or install these safety features, you will satisfy your extraordinary diligence requirements.”
Common carriers may be able to rely on precedent to make determinations on what would and would not meet the extraordinary diligence requirements, but past cases don’t necessarily cover every possible event or scenario.
Disputes over diligence are often litigated after the fact. Decisions may be influenced by the cost of a safety measure or preventative action, specifically whether the action would place an undue burden on the common carrier.
In some cases, the likelihood of an injury happening factors into the legal determination of diligence. A person may escape liability if something entirely unforeseen happened and someone else was injured as a result. If they can prove they were exercising necessary or ordinary diligence and there was no reason to suspect the unexpected event would occur, they may have a solid defense.
A common carrier that is required to exercise extraordinary diligence would potentially need to put in place safeguards to protect against that unexpected event. Failing to have contingencies for the unlikely could mean the business falls short of their extraordinary diligence requirements.
Consider airlines and the FAA requirement to have inflatable slides and floatation devices. There have been very few instances of emergency water landings of major airline planes in the United States. They’re so uncommon that the one time in recent memory when it occurred, Hollywood made a movie about it.
You might think it’s excessive to outfit every plane for that very specific and unlikely scenario, but doing so is an act of extraordinary diligence that might shield the airline from liability in the future. If a water landing were to occur and those safety measures weren’t in place or working properly, passengers and surviving family members may have a much better chance for success in their injury and wrongful death lawsuits.
Diligence requirements extend beyond just the ride itself. When passengers are disembarking, common carriers in Georgia are still liable for their safety. That means if a bus driver were to drop a person off in a situation where there’s a significant likelihood of an injury, and the passenger does suffer an injury, the common carrier company would likely be liable.
However, there are limits to liability. O.C.G.A. 46-9-132 specifically states that as long as a common carrier meets their diligence requirements – and they can prove it – they are “…not liable for injuries to them [passengers] after having used such diligence.”
Defending Transportation Companies from All Types of Liability Claims in Georgia
Accidents happen in Georgia. Many accidents simply can’t have been foreseen or prevented, regardless of the level of diligence a common carrier exerts. In many cases a passenger’s injuries are a result of their own mistakes or recklessness. Even in those circumstances, common carriers can face an uphill battle in proving they met their standard of care.
At Edwards & Hawkins, we’re committed to aggressively defending our clients’ businesses. We use detail-oriented investigatory practices and a thorough understanding of Georgia common carrier law to develop cases that demonstrate how our clients go above and beyond to protect their passengers from foreseen and unforeseen risks.
Call us at (404) 526-8866 to schedule a consultation.
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