---
title: O.C.G.A. § 34-7-23. Assumption of risk by employees; requirements for recovery of damages.
collection: code
id: 34-7-23
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 34-7-23 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/34-7-23
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/34-7-23.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/34-7-23/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t34-(v26)-2017-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=ba91129b_0#page=123
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS / EMPLOYMENT GENERALLY; EMPLOYERS LIABILITY / EMPLOYER’S LIABILITY FOR INJURIES GENERALLY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 34-7-23. Assumption of risk by employees; requirements for recovery of damages.

An employee assumes the ordinary risks of his employment and is bound to exercise his own skill and diligence to protect himself. In actions for injuries arising from the negligence of the employer in failing to comply with the duties imposed by Code Section 34-7-20, in order that the employee may recover, it must appear that the employer knew or ought to have known of the incompetency of the other employee or of the defects or danger in the machinery supplied; and it must also appear that the employee injured did not know and had not equal means of knowing such fact and by the exercise of ordinary care could not have known thereof.

## History

Civil Code 1895, § 2612; Civil Code 1910, § 3131; Code 1933, § 66-303; Ga. L. 1998, p. 128, § 34.

## Law Reviews

For article discussing origin and construction of Georgia provisions concerning master-servant relationship, see 14 Ga. L. Rev. 239 (1980).

## History of Code Section.

This Code section is derived from the decisions in McDonald v. Eagle & Phenix Mfg. Co., 68 Ga. 839 (1882); Georgia R.R. & Banking Co. v. Nelms, 83 Ga. 70, 9 S.E. 1049 (1889); Davis v. Augusta Factory, 92 Ga. 712, 18 S.E. 974 (1893).