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Currid v. DeKalb State Court Probation Dep't7/12/2005
RUFFIN, C. J., JOHNSON, P. J., BARNES, J.
Vincent Currid died after falling from a garbage truck while performing court-ordered community service for the DeKalb County Public Works Department. Currid's estate and his father ("Appellants") brought a wrongful death action against DeKalb County, its employees Vicki Carter and Harrison Hoskins, the Georgia Department of Corrections ("DOC"), and its employee Mattie Gabriel. All the defendants moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted summary judgment on all claims to Carter, Gabriel and the DOC; granted summary judgment to DeKalb County, except to the extent the county waived immunity by purchasing an automobile liability insurance policy pursuant to OCGA ยง 33-24-51; and denied summary judgment to Hoskins. This appeal followed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the grant of summary judgment to Carter, Gabriel and the DOC, but reverse the grant of summary judgment to DeKalb County.
Summary judgment is proper where no genuine issue of material fact exists and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. "Once the movant has made a prima facie showing that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the burden shifts to the respondent to come forward with rebuttal evidence." "We apply a de novo standard of review 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."
Viewed in this light, the evidence shows that the State Court of DeKalb County sentenced Currid to 12 months probation and ordered him to serve 40 hours of community service as a condition of his probation. Currid initially met with both a DeKalb County probation officer and community services coordinator Vicki Carter to discuss his probation, and he signed a waiver of liability for injuries he might receive while performing community service.
On September 20, 1999, Currid reported to the central DeKalb probation office to begin performing community service. Carter and Mattie Gabriel, a DOC employee, were making community service assignments that day. They sat next to each other at a table where probationers came to sign in for community service. Carter was overseeing misdemeanor probationers for DeKalb County, while Gabriel was overseeing felony probationers for the DOC. Both misdemeanor and felony probationers were assigned on a first-come, first-served basis to the community service agencies that had requested workers for the day. Gabriel informed Currid that he would be working with the sanitation department. Currid did not receive any training or safety equipment before being sent to work at the sanitation department.
At the sanitation department, Currid was assigned to a garbage truck driven by Harrison Hoskins. Currid was given gloves, but wore his own clothes and shoes, although the sanitation department requires its employees to wear steel-toe shoes. In fact, probationers who do community service with the sanitation department are generally given gloves, but none of the other equipment that is mandatory for employees.
Currid and sanitation worker Antonio Simpson rode inside the cab of the truck until they got to the first stop on the route. At the first stop, Currid got on the rear of the truck, and Hoskins instructed him how to stand on the steps at the rear of the truck, how to get off the truck, and how to operate the levers for trash compaction. They then began to collect garbage on the route.
The garbage truck which Currid rode has a warning sign on it stating that no one should ride on the steps on the back of the truck when the truck is exceeding 10 m
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