Court of Appeals

of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A24A1396. ALAN KUGLAR AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF BLANCA

ROHR v. FIRST-CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY. 

A24A1397. FIRST-CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY v. ALAN

KUGLAR AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF BLANCA ROHR.

In this civil action, plaintiff First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company (“FirstCitizens”) sued Blanca Rohr, Cory White, and Specialized Loan Servicing LLC 

(“SLS”), in connection with certain real property and loans secured by the property.

Following the court’s entry of a November 30, 2023 order in the case, First-Citizens

and Rohr’s widower each filed a notice of appeal. For the reasons set forth below,

these appeals are dismissed.

In the November 30, 2023 order, the trial court granted defendant SLS’s

motion for summary judgment and dismissed SLS from the case. In addition, it

granted First-Citizens’s motion for summary judgment as to its petition to set aside

the cancellation of a security deed under Count 1 of its complaint. The next day,

December 1, 2023, Alan Kuglar, Rohr’s husband, filed a notice of death and

substitution of Rohr, advising that Rohr had died on June 26, 2023, and that Kuglar

was waiting for the arrival of her death certificate before initiating probate

proceedings.

On December 27, 2023, Kuglar filed a notice of appeal from the November 30,

2023 order (docketed as Case No. A24A1396). First-Citizens also filed a notice of

appeal from the November 30 order (docketed as Case No. A24A1397), noting that

it did so in order to preserve its rights against Rohr. On January 24, 2024, FirstCitizens moved in the trial court to dismiss Kuglar’s appeal on the basis that he had

not been appointed executor of Rohr’s estate and was not a party to the lawsuit at the

time he filed the notice of appeal.

On February 16, 2024, Kuglar moved in the trial court to substitute himself, in

his capacity as executor of Rohr’s estate, as a defendant in the underlying action. On

July 12, 2024
March 28, 2024, the trial court granted Kuglar’s motion to substitute and denied

First-Citizens’s motion to dismiss Kuglar’s appeal.

First-Citizens now has moved in this Court to dismiss Kuglar’s appeal,

contending that we lack jurisdiction.We agree.Rohr died in June 2023, and the action

was suspended asto Rohr upon her death. See Roberts v. JP MorganChase Bank, Nat.

Assn., 362 Ga. App. 375, 376 (868 SE2d 491) (2022) (“[O]n the death of a party, the

action is suspended and the suspension has the same temporary effect on the rights

of the parties as though the suit actually abated. The action remains in abeyance and

cannot proceed until someone is substituted for the decedent.”) (citation and

punctuation omitted). “Until someone is properly substituted as a party after the

action is thus suspended, further proceedings in the case are void as to the decedent.”

South DeKalb Family Branch of YMCA v. Frazier, 236 Ga. 903, 905 (225 SE2d 890)

(1976). Thus, the order on appeal was a nullity as to Rohr. Id.

Under these circumstances, First-Citizens’s motion to dismiss the appeal in

Case No. A24A1396 is GRANTED. The appeals in both Case Nos. A24A1396 &

A24A1397 are DISMISSED and REMANDED to the trial court, with instructions to

the court to vacate any orders as to Rohr that were entered after her death but before

the substitution of Kuglar. The parties will have 30 days to file new notices of appeal

from any orders then entered naming the proper parties.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

Clerk’s Office,Atlanta,____________________

I certify that the above is a true extract from

the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Witness my signature and the seal of said court

hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.

07/12/2024