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Hill v. Tschannen

O.C.G.A. § 25-2-40 g provides that evidence of failure to maintain a smoke detector in good working order cannot be considered as evidence of negligence in a civil case.

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Stacy Hill was injured in a fire while staying with her cousin who lived in an apartment complex. She brought suit against the building owner and property manager, among others, but the trial court granted summary judgment in their favor. Hill contends there remain issues of fact for the jury in both cases. Construed in favor of Hill, the evidence shows that at all relevant times, Ernest Tschannen, a resident of California, owned the Terrace Park Apartment Complex located in Macon, Georgia. Tschannen hired Woodruff Property Management Company to manage the complex, which it did from October 1, 1996 through either December 31, 1997 or January 23, 1998. Tschannen himself took over management of the property at that point and hired all of Woodruff’s on-site staff to do so. The fire occurred on February 28, 1998, after Tschannen took over.

When Woodruff began to manage the property in October 1996, it performed a unit-by-unit inspection of the apartments and learned that battery-operated smoke detectors were in place in the apartments at that time. Woodruff instituted a program of additional unit-by-unit inspections on a quarterly basis thereafter, and the inspection included determining whether the smoke detector was in good working order. But according to Woodruff, it was the tenant’s responsibility to replace stale batteries. Woodruff had no knowledge of a stale battery in the smoke detector in the apartment in question as of the termination of its contract to manage the property.

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