Court Opinion

ID: 9762872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:33:06.071834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:38.188571
License: Public Domain

KOCH, Judge,
dissenting.
Cookeville Gynecology & Obstetrics, P.C. (“Cookeville Gynecology”) sued Southeastern Data Systems, Inc. (“Southeastern Data”) for fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations and for breach of contract and breach of warranty. The Chancery Court for Putnam County awarded Cookeville Gynecology $31,-139.37 and dismissed Southeastern Data’s counterclaim for attorney’s fees because it had already determined that Cookeville Gynecology had not breached the contract. Southeastern Data appealed requesting reversal of the judgment and recovery of its attorney’s fees.
We reversed the judgment in favor of Cookeville Gynecology in our April 15, 1994 opinion but made no mention of Southeastern Data’s request for its attorney’s fees. Southeastern Data called this oversight to our attention in a timely petition for rehearing. The other members of this panel have chosen to deny the petition for rehearing on the technical grounds that Southeastern Data did not include a specific issue dealing with attorney’s fees in its brief even though it requested this relief in the conclusion to its brief.
I do not share the majority’s reluctance to consider the attorney’s fees matter. We have concluded that the trial court erred when it determined that Southeastern Data had breached its warranties concerning the computer system it sold to Cookeville Gynecology. I would remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings concerning Southeastern Data’s counterclaim for attorney’s fees since we have now determined that Cookeville Gynecology defaulted by canceling the contract prematurely.