Court Opinion

ID: 9586770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:14:46.391886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:50.448766
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur with all divisions of this opinion except Division 4 with which I concur in judgment only. Although I agree the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of Guernsey Petroleum Corporation on the claim for malicious abuse of process made by Data General, I do not agree with the majority that Yost v. Torok, 256 Ga. 92 (344 SE2d 414) (1986) is applicable here. In response to interrogatories, Data General stated that it sought recovery only of damages for attorney fees and the cost of litigation on its malicious abuse of process claim. As noted by the Supreme Court in Yost, “[Recently enacted House Bill No. 1146, Ga. L. 1986, p. 1591 (to be known as OCGA § 9-15-14), provides for the award of attorney fees and expenses of litigation for specified abusive conduct. The new statute will, of course, govern these two elements of damages. That, however, in no way resolves the problems which we have outlined relative to other elements of recovery, specifically: special damages other than attorney fees and expenses of litigation . . . .” Yost, supra at 95 (9) and (10). Thus, Yost explicitly exempts from its purview the sole damages sought by Data General in its claim. Yost is therefore not applicable here and it is not necessary for us to address the possible retroactive effect of Yost.
Likewise, we need not here determine whether OCGA § 9-15-14, which became effective July 1, 1986, is retroactively applicable. Under the facts in this case as set forth in the majority, Data General failed to establish a claim to entitle it to attorney fees and expenses of litigation, and the trial court properly so ruled regardless whether that ruling is considered under the case law in effect prior to the effective date of OCGA § 9-15-14 or under the provisions of the statute which authorize the court (judge) to make such a determination. Accordingly, I concur with the majority’s affirmance of the trial court’s decision, but only on the basis outlined above.
*798David D. Blum, for Cohen.