Miller, Presiding Judge.This appeal stems from a tragic hit and run incident in which the driver of a tractor-trailor struck three pedestrians as they attempted to cross Georgia Highway 520 in the City of Dawson. The only surviving pedestrian, Adrianne Glover, sued Georgia Power, alleging that the company failed to maintain appropriate lighting in the area of the incident. The trial court granted summary judgment to Georgia Power, and Glover appeals. Among other contentions, Glover argues that the trial court erred in ruling that Georgia Power had no duty to provide or maintain streetlights in the area of the incident, and in determining that the physical condition of the highway was not dangerous or abnormal at the time of the incident so as to engender such a duty. We conclude that the trial court correctly granted summary judgment to Georgia Power because the company did not owe or voluntarily assume any duty to Glover that would subject it to liability in this case. Accordingly, we affirm.Summary judgment is appropriate when no genuine issue of material fact exists for consideration by a jury, entitling the movant to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 91156 (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 nonmovant.
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Roquemore v. City of Forsyth, 274 Ga. App. 420 (617 SE2d 644) (2005).[1] So viewed, the evidence shows that Highway 520 is part of the state highway system and was designed by the Georgia Department of Transportation (“DOT”). A portion of this highway is in the City of Dawson (“the City”). Around 1989, the DOT widened this portion of the highway, and Georgia Power applied for an encroachment permit from the DOT to erect additional light poles along the highway. The DOT approved the request, and Georgia Power installed the additional lighting in accordance with the permit. Georgia Power has a contract with the City whereby the City pays the monthly bill for the electricity used, and the City’s police department monitors the streetlights. If a patrolling officer observes an outage to a streetlight, that outage is reported to the City, and then the City informs Georgia Power so that Georgia Power can address the problem.On an evening in February 2013, Glover, Latasha Harvey, and Harvey’s four-year-old daughter left Glover’s residence on foot and began crossing from the west to the east side of Highway 520 to go to a convenience store. At that point in the highway, there are four traffic lanes and a turning lane in the center. Although the west side contains streetlights, the east side does not.As the three pedestrians stood in the center turning lane, waiting for traffic to clear, a tractor-trailor struck them. Harvey and her daughter were killed as a result, and Glover sustained extensive injuries. The driver of the tractor-trailor testified that the area in which the incident occurred was dark and that he did not see any of the pedestrians. His urine sample, which was taken the following evening, tested positive for cocaine, but the forensic toxicologist could not determine whether he was impaired by cocaine at the time of the incident. The driver thereafter pleaded guilty to first-degree homicide by vehicle, hit and run, and serious injury by vehicle.A Georgia State Patrol officer investigated the collision and found that a streetlight immediately south of where the pedestrians crossed the highway went “on and off at times.” Prior to the incident, however, Georgia Power had not been informed of any malfunctioning streetlight or power outage at the scene. Further, when the officer inspected the roadway, he noted that its condition appeared normal, and that it contained no potholes or obstructions, nor was it undergoing any excavation work. The Georgia State Patrol Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team also investigated the incident. The lead officer in this team determined that the area was dark, but that the roadway did not appear to contribute to the incident.Months later, this same lead officer performed another reconstruction of the incident, using a similar tractor-trailor and driving under similar conditions with regard to weather, speed, and direction. The lead officer thereafter testified that he did not believe that the driver had been able to see the pedestrians. The City requested that the DOT study the area, and the DOT concluded that the lighting “appear[ed] insufficient” during the nighttime. Glover sued the City and Georgia Power to recover damages for her medical expenses and she alleged, inter alia, that both were negligent by failing to maintain appropriate lighting in the area of the incident.[2] Georgia Power moved for summary judgment, arguing that its contractual responsibility was to the City, not to Glover, that its only obligation was to repair streetlights when it received notification of an outage, and that it did not proximately cause Glover’s injuries.The trial court granted summary judgment to Georgia Power, ruling that the company had no public or private duty to provide or maintain streetlights in the area of the accident; that Glover did not have an action against Georgia Power where the privity of contract was between the City and Georgia Power; and that Georgia Power did not undertake any duty to Glover. The trial court further found that even if Georgia Power had breached some duty to Glover, the driver’s intervening criminal act rendered the causal connection between any alleged negligence by Georgia Power and Glover’s injuries too remote. Glover now appeals. 1. As her first enumeration of error, Glover argues that the trial court erred in concluding that Georgia Power owed no duty to provide or maintain streetlights in the area of the incident. We discern no error on the part of the trial court.In order to have a viable negligence action, a plaintiff must satisfy the elements of the tort, namely, the existence of a duty on the part of the defendant, a breach of that duty, causation of the alleged injury, and damages resulting from the alleged breach of the duty. The threshold issue in any cause of action for negligence is whether, and to what extent, the defendant owes the plaintiff a duty of care. Whether a duty exists upon which liability can be based is a question of law. The duty can arise either from a valid legislative enactment, that is, by statute, or be imposed by a common law principle recognized in the case law.
