Court Opinion

ID: 9594754
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:32:42.171246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:25.466958
License: Public Domain

Benham, Presiding Justice,
concurring specially.
While first recognizing that the expenses of litigation are generally not allowed as part of damages, OCGA § 13-6-11 authorizes a factfinder to make such an award when the defendant has acted in bad faith in making the contract, has been stubbornly litigious, or has caused unnecessary trouble and expense. If any evidence supports the jury’s verdict, it must be upheld on appeal. Ken-Mar Constr. Co. v. Bowen, 245 Ga. 676, 677 (266 SE2d 796) (1980).
Acting under the auspices of OCGA § 9-11-49, the jury returned a special verdict in which it found that Ms. Latham had caused Mr. Faulk unnecessary trouble and expense, and awarded him $15,000 attorney fees. In its judgment, the trial court determined that the award was proper, based upon the testimony of an experienced trial attorney concerning the work done by Faulk’s counsel during the six years the litigation was pending in the trial court. This court now reverses that judgment on the ground that the existence of a bona fide controversy negates, as a matter of law, a finding that a party has been stubbornly litigious or caused unnecessary trouble and expense. *109I agree with the result reached by the majority, but I am not willing to hold that the existence of a bona fide controversy precludes, as a matter of law, a finding that a party has caused unnecessary trouble and expense. Instead, I believe that the award should be reversed on the ground that the “unnecessary trouble and expense” of § 13-6-11 does not cover the situation presented by the case at bar.
Decided March 6, 1995.
G. Lee Dickens, Jr., for appellant.
M. Brice Ladson, John C. Peeples, for appellee.
I wholeheartedly agree with the holding that a party is caused unnecessary trouble and expense if there is no bona fide controversy and the party is forced to resort to the courts to achieve satisfaction. Buffalo Cab Co. v. Williams, 126 Ga. App. 522, 524 (191 SE2d 317) (1972). See also Pferdmenges, Preyer &c. v. Butler, Stevens &c., 117 Ga. 400 (2) (43 SE 695) (1903). This is so because the Georgia Constitution safeguards every person’s right to prosecute or defend that person’s cause in the courts of this State. Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XII. West v. Haas, 191 Ga. 569, 575 (13 SE2d 376) (1941). However, I do not as readily accept the opposite of that corollary — that the presence of a bona fide controversy makes impossible a finding that a party has caused unnecessary trouble and expense. Even where there is a bona fide controversy, if the evidence supporting the claim of causing unnecessary trouble and expense establishes that there has been “wanton or excessive indulgence in litigationf,]” an award is sustainable. See Tift v. Towns, 63 Ga. 237 (3) (1879). Thus, even if a bona fide controversy exists, a person who has wantonly or excessively indulged in litigation may be found liable for expenses of litigation under § 13-6-11.
In the case at bar, the evidence relied upon by the trial court to award expenses of litigation to Mr. Faulk was an attorney’s testimony that the amount of the bill for legal services submitted by Mr. Faulk’s counsel was reasonable and necessary considering the type of case, and contained expenses customarily incurred in litigation. Such evidence does not establish that Ms. Latham had been wanton or excessive in litigation. As a result, the award of expenses of litigation was not supported by evidence and must be reversed. I therefore concur with the decision of the majority to reverse that portion of the judgment awarding Mr. Faulk $15,000 as expenses of the litigation.