Brooke v. Bowers

Two of the four special grounds of the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial assign error on the trial court’s instructing the jury on the law of contributory negligence, when such negligence was not made an issue in the case in any manner whatsoever.

“While contributory negligence is an affirmative defense and must be pleaded unless affirmatively shown by the allegations of the petition (Watts v. Colonial Stages Co., 45 Ga. App. 115, 119, 163 S. E. 523; Woolworth Co. v. Wood, 32 Ga. App. 575 (2), 124 S. E. 110; Fuller v. Louis Steyerman & Sons, Inc., 46 Ga. App. 830 (2), 169 S. E. 508); and…