2020 Georgia Code
Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses
Chapter 11 - Offenses Against Public Order and Safety
Article 2 - Offenses Against Public Order
§ 16-11-43. Obstructing Highways, Streets, Sidewalks, or Other Public Passages
A person who, without authority of law, purposely or recklessly obstructs any highway, street, sidewalk, or other public passage in such a way as to render it impassable without unreasonable inconvenience or hazard and fails or refuses to remove the obstruction after receiving a reasonable official request or the order of a peace officer that he do so, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Laws 1818, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 949; Ga. L. 1859, p. 65, § 1; Code 1863, § 4481; Ga. L. 1865-66, p. 233, § 2; Code 1868, § 4527; Code 1873, § 4617; Code 1882, § 4617; Penal Code 1895, § 715; Penal Code 1910, § 766; Code 1933, § 26-8106; Code 1933, § 26-2611, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.)
Cross references.- Further provisions regarding obstruction of public roads, § 32-6-1.
Authorization of security personnel to deny entrance and remove persons from state property, § 50-16-14.
Administrative Rules and Regulations.- Powers and procedures for enforcement of highway obstruction laws, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, State Department of Transportation, § 672-4-.06.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
"Public passage" construed.
- Establishment of temporary barricades along or around a public passage during the legitimate exercise of police power does not, by confining an area for certain purpose, render such passage nonpublic or "private," such that a person unlawfully crossing the barricade and obstructing the confined area could quixotically claim to have committed no crime. McMonagle v. State, 196 Ga. App. 300, 395 S.E.2d 821 (1990).
Sufficient evidence that road was public passage.
- There was sufficient evidence that the road the defendant obstructed was a public passage when there was testimony that the road was used by not only residents, but by the traveling public, that the county maintained the road, that the road was on an official county map, and that the road was assigned a county road number. The offense did not require government ownership of the area blocked. Davis v. State, 288 Ga. App. 66, 653 S.E.2d 358 (2007).
Questions of fact remained as to abandonment.
- In a dispute over access to a roadway, the trial court erred in granting the plaintiff summary judgment enjoining the defendant from obstructing the road because questions of fact remained as to abandonment of the roadway leading to the plaintiff's property, which were not properly resolved by the trial court. Pass v. Forestar GA Real Estate Group, Inc., 337 Ga. App. 244, 787 S.E.2d 250 (2016), cert. denied, No. S16C1689, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 830 (Ga. 2016).
Protesters as obstruction.
- Refusal of abortion protesters to remove themselves after warning, and their going "limp" and playing "dead," constituted "obstruction" within the meaning of O.C.G.A. § 16-11-43. McMonagle v. State, 196 Ga. App. 300, 395 S.E.2d 821 (1990).
Evidence showing that abortion protesters purposely or recklessly obstructed a public passage in such a way as to render the passage impassable without unreasonable inconvenience or hazard, and then failed to remove the obstacle after receiving a reasonable official request or order of a peace officer to do so, authorized the protestors' convictions for obstructing the public passage in violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-11-43. Hoover v. State, 198 Ga. App. 481, 402 S.E.2d 92 (1991).
No merger with obstructing law enforcement officer conviction.
- It was not error to refuse to merge the defendant's convictions of obstructing a public passage and obstructing a law enforcement officer under O.C.G.A. §§ 16-10-24 and16-11-43 when the defendant placed a barricade across a roadway, refused to move the barricade when ordered to do so, and then, after the officer moved the barricade, replaced the barricade after being told by the officer not to do so. The evidence required to prove the obstruction of a law enforcement officer was not "used up" in proving the obstruction of a public passage. Davis v. State, 288 Ga. App. 66, 653 S.E.2d 358 (2007).
Cited in Cearley v. State, 193 Ga. App. 652, 388 S.E.2d 751 (1989).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 40 Am. Jur. 2d, Highways, Streets, and Bridges, §§ 594, 595.
C.J.S.- 40 C.J.S., Highways, §§ 355, 356.
ALR.
- Right of abutting owner to use street including sidewalk, for the deposit, exhibition, or sale of goods, 6 A.L.R. 1314.
Liability of one maintaining a temporary obstruction upon sidewalk while loading or unloading vehicle, 61 A.L.R. 1054.
Right of abutting owner to change grade of sidewalk, 62 A.L.R. 401.
Public speaking in street, 62 A.L.R. 404.
Liability of owner or occupant for condition of covering over opening or vault in sidewalk, 62 A.L.R. 1067; 31 A.L.R.2d 1334.
Liability of public contractor to property owner for obstructing street, 68 A.L.R. 1510.
Emission of smoke or steam from private premises, or existence of other conditions thereon, as ground of liability of owner or occupant for results of an automobile accident on the highway, 150 A.L.R. 371.
Duty of highway construction contractor to provide temporary way or detour around obstruction, 29 A.L.R.2d 876.
Owner's liability, under legislation forbidding domestic animals to run at large on highways, as dependent on negligence, 34 A.L.R.2d 1285.
Liability of motor vehicle owner or operator to one on sidewalk struck by overhang of vehicle, 34 A.L.R.3d 425.
Governmental liability for failure to reduce vegetation obscuring view at railroad crossing or at street or highway intersection, 22 A.L.R.4th 624.
Liability of private landowner for vegetation obscuring view at highway or street intersection, 69 A.L.R.4th 1092.
