Court Opinion

ID: 9847933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:10:05.891021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:47.924798
License: Public Domain

Evans,. Judge,
dissenting. I am in favor of affirming the award as to attorney’s fees and penalty for bad faith, and therefore dissent from Division 2 of the majority opinion, which opinion argues that "if the evidence is such that a finding in accordance with the contentions of the defendant would have been authorized, a finding of bad faith is not authorized.” This, in effect, nullifies and renders meaningless the provision for attorney’s fees and penalty as set forth in Code Ann. §56-1206 (Ga. L. 1960, pp. 289, 502; 1962, p. 712). It would be a great service to the lawyers of Georgia if this court would set forth some of the instances in which penalty and attorney’s fees for bad faith will be upheld. It appears to me that it is practically impossible to recover attorney’s fees and penalty under this statute, with any real hope of having this court affirm same. If it is true that the lawyers of Georgia have no real chance of collecting attorney’s fees and penalty under Code Ann. § 56-1206, then I believe it would be best to so announce, and let them go to the General Assembly for relief, by amending this statute to make the law really mean what it says.