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Devotie v. Turner Area Operation12/3/2002
James and Christine Devotie appeal from the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Turner Arena Operations, Inc. in this personal injury suit and its derivative loss of consortium claim. Finding no error, we affirm.
Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA ยง 9-11-56 (c). A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the non-movant. (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Costrini v. Hansen Architects, 247 Ga. App. 136 (543 SE2d 760) (2000). See also Lau's Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491 (405 SE2d 474) (1991). "A grant of summary judgment must be affirmed if it is right for any reason." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Costrini v. Hansen Architects, 247 Ga. App. at 138 (1).
Viewed in this light, the evidence of record shows that James Devotie was a 37-year-old man with extensive work experience in building construction. On September 27, 1999, Devotie and his 13-year-old son attended a World Championship Wrestling "Monday Night Nitro" wrestling event at Philips Arena in Atlanta. They arrived at the arena at approximately 7:30 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. event. After finding their seats in Section 111, Devotie's son noticed that his seat was unsteady. Devotie checked under the seat and realized that it was not bolted to the floor. Immediately after trading seats with his son, Devotie felt the seat move forward and had to catch his balance to keep from falling. He alerted an usher because he felt the seat was "unsafe" and that someone might fall over in it. Devotie showed the usher that the seat was not fastened to the floor by picking up and "wobbling" the chair.
The usher told Devotie that she would notify her supervisor. Devotie sat in the chair for approximately another hour before the supervisor arrived. Again, Devotie picked up the seat to show the supervisor that it was not attached to the floor. According to Devotie, the supervisor told him to wait "a little while" for people to get to their seats, then to "feel free to move to another [empty] seat." Devotie deposed that he did not see other available seats, but admitted that he did not look beyond his section to see if seats in other sections were available. Devotie deposed that he may have moved if he could have found a "better seat," in other words, one with better visibility of the event, because he "wasn't in the best of viewing areas." He stated that he may have felt "more comfortable" and "safer" in a more stable seat. Notably, the facility ticket manager demonstrated in two affidavits that numerous seats were available in Section 111, as well as in surrounding sections.
Approximately an hour after Devotie talked to the supervisor (and at least two hours after Devotie first sat in the seat), Devotie was sitting with at least one of his feet propped on the seat in front of him when he leaned over to talk to his son. The seat suddenly shifted backwards and the back "collapsed" onto Devotie. Devotie fell forward onto the floor. Embarrassed, he got up and sat back down in the seat to watch the rest of the event, which ended approximately 20 minutes later. Devotie did not remember feeling pain immediately after the fall. He also stated that he had no other problems with the seat before or after the fall. Devotie left the arena after the event without notifying an arena employee of his fall. After arriving home, he began to suffer symptoms of knee and back injuries.
On June 7, 2000, he sued Turner Arena Operations ("Turner"), Atlanta Fulton County Recre
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