Court Opinion

ID: 9579869
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:59:23.710002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:51.150239
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Hall, Judge.
In her motion for rehearing the plaintiff attacks the decision that the basis of an action under Code § 56-519 is a statutory liability or penalty. The plaintiff cites Life &c. Ins. Co. of Tenn. v. Walker, 62 Ga. App. 819 (10 SE2d 124), in which this court held that the plaintiff’s cause of action under Code § 56-519, if any, was barred by the statute of limitation, because the facts alleged did not show that the misrepresentations by the defendant’s agents prevented the plaintiff from discovering, when the policies were delivered to her or within a reasonable time thereafter, that she had been sold insurance policies different in terms from those represented by the defendant’s agents as being sold to her. Tire court held that an action for fraudulent inducement to enter into a contract must be brought within four years from the time the fraud is or should have been discovered. Concerning the nature of the cause of *311action there is an apparent inconsistency of logic between that case and the former decision in the present case. The 20-year statute of limitation is clearly applicable to a statutory liability or penalty. Code Ann. § 3-704. It is the law of this case by the former decision that the plaintiff’s cause of action was upon a statutory liability or penalty imposed by Code § 56-519, and the court did not hold that the plaintiff had any other right to recover for fraud. Were the question of the statute of limitation directly involved in the present case, we would not likely follow the case of Life &c. Ins. Co. of Tenn. v. Walker, 62 Ga. App. 819, supra, as we construe. Cd,de § 56-519 to impose a statutory liability. But what is said in the former opinion in this case concerning the statute of limitation is, of course, dictum.
The defendant has made a motion to assess costs against plaintiff. Since the provision in the decision for writing off from the judgment the sum awarded as attorney’s fees will amount to a substantial modification of the judgment in the trial court, the costs of bringing the case to this court are taxed against the plaintiff (defendant in error). Shaheen v. Kiker, 105 Ga. App. 692 (125 SE2d 541, 545).

Rehearing denied.

Bell, J., concurs. Felton, C. J., concurs specially.