Court Opinion

ID: 9575579
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:15:03.951998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:34.199740
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
On motion for rehearing appellee General Electric Capital Corporation contends that we have overlooked our holding in Atlanta Truck Svc. v. Assoc. &c. Corp., 146 Ga. App. 170, 173 (2) (246 SE2d 2) (1978), and asserts that under that opinion, no ruling upon its petition for writ of possession could legally have been issued by the trial court in the August 1989 order until appellant’s claim for moving expenses had been paid, so that the denial of the writ therein was void and thus did not serve as a bar under the doctrine of res judicata to appellee’s subsequent petition for writ of possession.
Atlanta Truck Svc., supra, involved the priority .of liens on a tractor truck as between the security interest holder and the mechanic who had repaired the truck. In the order appealed from, the trial court had denied the repairman’s claim that he was entitled to dispose of the truck as an abandoned vehicle under former Ga. Code Ann. § 68-23 et seq., but had awarded him fees for storage of the truck, and then had ruled that the security interest holder was entitled to possession of the truck. This court reversed, finding that the repairman had a valid possessory lien for work done and materials furnished under former Ga. Code Ann. § 68-423a, and remanded the case for new trial so that the trial court could address the merits of the repairman’s claim and determine whether the repairman could establish'priority of his lien so as to entitle him to any sums he could prove for the repair and storage of the truck. Based on the unresolved issues involving a lien with possible priority over the security interest holder’s claim, we held that “it was illegal to grant possession of the vehicle to the security interest holder without payment of the amount due the repairman.” Id. at 173 (2).
We do not agree with appellee that Atlanta Truck Svc., supra, stands for the proposition that a trial court cannot reach the merits of a petition for writ of possession for an item until prior claims on that item, which are all before the trial court at the time of the petition, have been satisfied. Atlanta Truck Svc. does not deprive a trial court of its authority to adjudicate all claims properly before it. Contrary to *386appellee’s argument, we find that the holding in Atlanta Truck Sue. merely reflects that until the priority of all claims upon an item have been established and the sums due other parties as a result of prior liens on that item fully adjudicated, it is improper for a trial court to issue a possessory warrant as to that item. Atlanta Truck Sue. thus is distinguishable from the case sub judice in that: (1) in August 1989 the trial court in the case at bar had all claims on the mobile home before it and ruled on all the claims. Appellant’s claim for storage charges was rejected, appellant’s claim for moving expenses was granted, and appellee’s petition for writ of possession was denied. Under the circumstances of this case, the trial court here would have been fully authorized in August 1989 to reach the merits of appellee’s petition and grant appellee possession of the mobile home, contingent upon payment of appellant’s moving expenses. The record reflects the trial court contemplated entering such an order but then struck it, ordering instead that appellee’s petition for writ of possession be denied. (2) Unlike the repairman in Atlanta Truck Svc., supra, who appealed when his claim was denied, appellee here brought no appeal from the August 1989 order denying its claim for possession. While arguably appellee may have had a meritorious claim that the trial court improperly denied its petition for writ of possession in August 1989, appellee’s failure to appeal that order and its failure to challenge the trial court’s ruling by the appropriate method under OCGA § 9-11-60 renders the August order a valid order by a court of competent jurisdiction as between the same parties on the same issue alleged in appellee’s subsequent complaint. Although we find the trial court was fully authorized to enter the August 1989 order, we note that even assuming, for argument’s sake, that the order was void, appellee would nevertheless be required to attack the order collaterally under OCGA § 9-11-60 (a), which it uncontrovertedly has not done.
Decided June 21, 1990
Rehearing denied July 13, 1990 — Cert, applied for.
Harry M. Moseley, for appellant.
Thompson & Slaglees, Scott A. Schweber, for appellee.