McEntyre v. Sams East, Inc

A woman bought mattresses and box springs at a Sam's Club in Albany, Georgia, and two store employees loaded them onto her pickup truck. After she drove off, one mattress fell into the road, and Amanda McEntyre's car struck it, causing serious injuries. McEntyre sued the store, Sam's East, arguing the employees who helped load the truck violated a Georgia law requiring loads to be securely fastened. A federal district court in Georgia asked the Supreme Court of Georgia three questions about how that law works. The court held that the loading statute applies to anyone assisting with loading, not just the vehicle's operator, so store employees can owe a duty to other drivers on the road. It also held that this is not a strict liability law: a load coming loose does not automatically prove it wasn't secured properly. Instead, ordinary negligence rules apply, meaning McEntyre would still need to prove the employees breached their duty and that this breach caused her injuries.

Georgia's load-securing statute (OCGA § 40-6-248.1(b)) imposes a duty on anyone assisting in loading a vehicle, not just the driver, to securely fasten the load; a load becoming loose does not automatically prove a lack of secure fastening, and ordinary negligence principles, including proximate cause, govern any resulting tort claim.

The ruling clarifies that store employees, movers, and helpful bystanders who assist with loading vehicles in Georgia can be held legally responsible if an unsecured load hurts someone on the road, while also protecting them from automatic liability whenever a load happens to come loose.

Certified questions answered

1. The court read the statute's plain language, which says 'no person shall operate or load for operation' a vehicle without securely fastening the load, and found nothing limiting that duty to the driver alone.
2. Because 'no person' is broad wording, and Georgia law generally holds people who assist others in violating a duty individually responsible, the court concluded that store employees helping to load a truck share the duty to secure the load.
3. The court then considered whether the law creates strict liability, meaning automatic responsibility without regard to fault, and found that Georgia law disfavors strict liability outside specific situations like abnormally dangerous activities or products liability, so ordinary negligence rules apply instead.
4. Applying negligence principles, the court explained that a plaintiff must still prove the loader breached the duty to secure the load and that this breach was the proximate cause, meaning a reasonably foreseeable cause, of the injury.
5. The court noted that intervening events, such as a vehicle owner telling the loader to stop or the driver taking over before securing was finished, could break the chain of causation and relieve a loading assistant of liability even if the load later came loose.

• unsecured load
• negligence
• strict liability
• truck accident
• Sam's Club