Court Opinion

ID: 9845009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:13:47.695053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:50.222136
License: Public Domain

*835Felton, C. J.,
concurring specially. 1. I concur in the judgment but for a different reason. Code § 110-1203 provides in part that “the adverse party prior to the day of hearing may serve opposing affidavits.” Code § 110-1205 provides further, in part, that “unless waived, affidavits of the movant shall be filed in court and served on the opposing party or his counsel along with the motion for summary judgment.” (Emphasis supplied.) The fact that the above statutes refer to the adverse party and the opposing party, rather than an or any adverse or opposing party, for example, indicates that the parties referred to are the party or parties plaintiff on the one hand and party or parties defendant on the other hand, rather than co-parties • plaintiff on the one hand or defendant on the other. This is in accordance with the customary and usual meaning ascribed to “adverse parties” and “opposing parties.” The controversy in this case is not between the two codefendants, but rather between the plaintiff and each codefendant jointly and severally. The plaintiff was the only party against whom the motion for summary judgment was directed and was the only party served. Plaintiff in error did appear at the hearing, did file affidavits in opposition to the motion and did argue the motion. Since the plaintiff, as the adverse party in the case, was the only party who could appeal the judgment below, the Southeastern Company is not a proper party plaintiff in error; therefore, the writ of error brought by it must be dismissed. The summary judgment law must be construed in the light of other relevant laws. This exact question has not been raised before in Georgia, to my knowledge, and the rulings nearest to the point are those in cases such as Western Union Tel. Co. v. Griffith, 111 Ga. 551 (36 SE 859). A rule there pronounced was that where one of the defendants in a joint and several action against joint defendants obtains a verdict in his favor the codefendant against whom a verdict was rendered may appeal without naming the other defendant a party to the bill of exceptions. See also Moore v. Harrison, 202 Ga. 814 (44 SE2d 551) and similar rulings. It seems to me that the above ruling answers the question before us because if the defendant against whom a verdict was rendered has any right whatsoever to keep *836the other defendant in the case, as against him, the latter would be a necessary party. What the ruling above means to me is that there is no right in the defendant held liable to contest with the released defendant whether the latter should be bound or not. In other words, in such cases, the question of the separate liability of each defendant is a question solely between the plaintiff and each defendant.
2. The majority opinion says that if the released defendant has a vested right in the subject matter he is a proper party to contest with his codefendant. I have above shown why under our law a codefendant is not such an adverse party to his co-defendant as gives him the right to contest with his codefendant in such a case as this. If I am wrong in my position I think that the defendant held in the case has such a right as will entitle him to contest with his codefendant in the effort to keep him in the case so that he may be relieved of the whole burden of the verdict found for the plaintiff. A codefendant certainly would not be denied the right to show that the evidence demanded a finding that the released codefendant was guilty of concurring negligence proximately causing the plaintiff’s injuries. It is unthinkable that he could be said not to have an enforceable right until a final judgment had been rendered against both defendants and he had paid more than his share so as to give him the right of contribution. What good is a right of contribution if the law ties your hands behind your back and prevents you from showing that at the end of the case you will be entitled to contribution? Under the theory set forth by the maj ority I think that the plaintiff can urge the point that the codefendant was improperly stricken from the case.
3. If my Division 1 seems unfair, any unfairness comes from the lack of a law allowing joint tort-feasors to make other persons parties defendant who might be jointly and severally liable to the plaintiff. Such is not the law in Georgia. This court cannot make it so. But the majority’s effort to support its position by comparing this case with one in which a plaintiff either elects not to sue one of several joint tortfeasors, or dismisses the case as to one or more, is untenable. In this case the plaintiff did sue both defendants and he has not dismissed as to the released *837defendant. The court released the defendant, not the plaintiff, and the court was not acting as agent for the plaintiff so that he could ratify the court’s act. For the sake of argument, if the plaintiff in error could be successful in reinstating the case against the codefendant released, the fact that the plaintiff below failed to except to the release of the codefendant would not eliminate the codefendant temporarily released from the case. What could be plainer?