Court Opinion

ID: 9575375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:13:23.06695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:09.603402
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
As correctly noted by the majority opinion, the gist of a trover action is conversion. In the instant case, the appellant was unable to controvert the appellee’s evidence that the ring was stolen by an unknown third party on July 18, 1983; further, there was no dispute that the appellant had been immediately informed of that theft, and that she actually did not demand the return of the ring until several months after the theft. This evidence failed to demonstrate any conversion of the ring by the appellees.
The appellees’ brief display of the ring to the presumed customer/thief simply was not “ ‘an unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over personal property belonging to another, in hostility to his rights; an act of dominion over the personal property of another inconsistent with his rights; or an unauthorized appropriation.’ [Cit.]” Wood v. Frank Graham Co., 91 Ga. App. 621, 622 (86 SE2d 691) (1955). In reality, that display merely was a somewhat common business practice, and in no way was it an act hostile to the appellant’s ownership.
That act of, of course, would be pertinent in determining whether *316the appellees as bailees had exercised reasonable care in the safekeeping of the ring. OCGA § 44-12-40 et seq.; Stefan Jewelers v. Berry, 163 Ga. App. 626 (295 SE2d 373) (1982). However, the appellant clearly disclaimed negligent bailment as her theory of recovery. Her complaint was cast in two counts, the first asserting a claim in trover and seeking punitive damages; the second count stated conversion, alleging that the appellees had actually sold the ring and kept the proceeds. Moreover, at the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, counsel for the appellant declared that this action was in trover and conversion. After having proudly discoursed on his profound knowledge of the law of trover (and attributing that acumen to his attendance of law school in England and use of F.F.C. Milsom’s text), he explained that his client could have proceeded under a theory of bailment but was not so required; significantly, counsel also noted that the measure of damages varied with the different theories of relief.
Decided July 8, 1985.
Robert S. Devins, for appellant.
In fact, punitive damages are not recoverable in a pure bailment case, but they are in trover and conversion cases. See Sisk v. Carney, 121 Ga. App. 560, 564 (174 SE2d 456) (1970). The appellant’s complaint stating trover and conversion only, and demanding punitive damages, along with the statements of counsel for the appellant at the hearing on the summary judgment motion, support but one conclusion; the appellant knowingly elected to proceed with the trover and conversion claims to the exclusion of any bailment theory of recovery.
In summary, I cannot subscribe to the majority opinion that a jury question existed over whether the appellees converted the appellant’s ring. The appellees, in showing the ring as an example to another prospective customer, did nothing that was inconsistent with or hostile to the appellant’s ownership of the ring. Because there was no appropriation of the ring by the appellees and because the appellant obviously rejected negligent bailment as a theory of recovery, the appellees were entitled to summary judgment as determined by the trial court. The reluctance of the majority opinion and of the other dissenting opinion to accept and apply the established principles of trover and election of remedy suggests the appropriate Tybee Island citation that “neither the laws of God nor of man apply” to merchant defendants. See Davis v. State, 127 Ga. App. 76, 77 (192 SE2d 538) (1972). Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.
I am authorized to state that Judge Pope joins in this dissent.
*317Kenneth M. Sissel, Warren D. Davis, John J. Strauss, for appellees.