Court Opinion

ID: 9567464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:54:10.972988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:37.709220
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
Although not a basis for the dissent, it is noted that the appellee is only Lessard. Since Gibson was never served and never entered an appearance, he is not a party and thus the appeal should be styled versus Lessard alone.
The court reaches out to address an issue which the record does not show was raised or ruled on by the trial court. The issue which commanded attention below was whether the financing statement adequately described the collateral. The trial court set a hearing for both the petition and Lessard’s motion to dismiss, which was based on alleged inadequacy of the financing statement.
The court “denied” the petition on the ground that the financing statement’s description of the collateral failed to satisfy OCGA § 11-9-110. There was no finding of fact concerning the security agreement’s description of the collateral nor any record that this was made an issue at trial. No transcript or narrative of the evidence was submitted, but appellant needed none because the court’s judgment shows the finding of facts and ruling which formed the issue at trial and is the subject of the legal error complained of.
The basis for this court’s opinion is an alleged defect in the security agreement, raised for the first time, insofar as the record shows, in appellee Lessard’s brief on appeal. We cannot assume that Lessard questioned the sufficiency at trial, or that ITT was given an opportunity at trial and failed to produce the Collateral List. The trial court made no finding in this regard but dwelt on the financing statement description.
We are a court for the correction of errors of law raised and ruled on by the trial courts. Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. V, Par. III; Hess Oil &c. Corp. v. Nash, 226 Ga. 706, 709 (177 SE2d 70) (1970); Tandy Corp. v. McCrimmon, 183 Ga. App. 744, 746 (3) (360 SE2d 70) (1987). The sole question before us is whether the trial court erred in denying the writ of possession on the ground that the financing statement did not contain an adequate description of the collateral. We should decide that question, a resolution of which would require reversal. OCGA §§ 11-9-203 (1) (a); 11-9-110; Thomas Ford Tractor v. North Ga. P.C.A., 153 Ga. App. 820 (266 SE2d 571) (1980); Peoples Bank of Bartow County v. Northwest Ga. Bank, 139 Ga. App. 264 (228 SE2d *191181) (1976).
Decided September 6, 1988.
Betty S. Frazer, William A. Erwin, for appellant.
Terry J. Marlowe, for appellees.
I am authorized to state that Judge Carley joins in this dissent.
Addendum.
The dissent finds fault with the style of the case on appeal. The appeal is styled in the exact style of the judgment of the trial court.
Exception is taken to the decision on grounds not enumerated as error. “As was stated by Justice Bleckley in Lee v. Porter, 63 Ga. 345, 346 (1879): ‘It not infrequently happens that a judgment is affirmed upon a theory of the case which did not occur to the court that rendered it, or which did occur and was expressly repudiated. The human mind is so constituted that in many instances it finds the truth when wholly unable to find the way that leads to it.’ From this keen observation of the common sense functioning of the judicial mind, the rule has arisen that ‘A correct decision of a trial court will not be reversed, regardless of the reasons given therefor.’ Coker v. City of Atlanta, 186 Ga. 473 (1) (198 SE 74) (1938).” Tony v. Pollard, supra, 88; Adams v. Emory Univ. Clinic, supra; Highsmith v. Knox, supra.
For this reason, because the trial judge reached a correct decision, we affirmed.