2020 Georgia Code
Title 51 - Torts
Chapter 1 - General Provisions
§ 51-1-36. Duty of Care of Operator of Motor Vehicle to Passengers

The operator of a motor vehicle owes to passengers therein the same duty of ordinary care owed to others.

(Code 1933, § 105-104.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 1283, § 1; Code 1981, §51-1-36, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 1283, § 2.)

- Settlement offers and agreement for personal injury, bodily injury, and death from motor vehicle, § 9-11-67.1.

- For article criticizing Georgia's traditional rules for determining choice of law questions and discussing available alternatives, see 34 Mercer L. Rev. 787 (1983).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Slight degree of care no longer sufficient.

- Prior to the enactment of O.C.G.A. § 51-1-36, a host driver owed only a duty to exercise a slight degree of care in regard to passengers in the driver's motor vehicle. Bostwick v. Flanders, 171 Ga. App. 93, 318 S.E.2d 801 (1984).

- Trial court did not err in refusing to apply O.C.G.A. § 51-1-36, changing the "guest passenger" rule as to the duty owed by an automobile operator to passengers to ordinary care, to a case involving a January 1981 accident, since, although a statute is "remedial" which affects only the procedure and practice of the courts and thus may be retroactive in application, the "guest passenger" rule established the duty owed by an automobile owner or operator to a nonpaying guest passenger, and there is nothing in the enactment of that section which discloses a legislative intent to apply the terms thereof retroactively. Rider v. Taylor, 166 Ga. App. 474, 304 S.E.2d 557 (1983).

Cited in Powell v. Clanton, 173 Ga. App. 363, 326 S.E.2d 495 (1985).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Modern status of choice of law in application of automobile guest statutes, 63 A.L.R.4th 167.