Court Opinion

ID: 9580993
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:10:56.029223+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:38.872065
License: Public Domain

Whitman, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part. As stated in the majority opinion, plaintiff Cohen sued the defendant Garland for $10,000 as money had and received, alleging that this sum had been paid on the defendant’s agreement to represent the plaintiff as his attorney in certain criminal cases pending against him; that defendant performed no services, rescinded the contract, and refused to refund the fee. This suit was filed December 28, 1962. Thereafter on October 11, 1967, and after September 1, 1967, the effective date of the Civil Practice Act, plaintiff amended the complaint to allege that at the time defendant accepted the money he did not intend to represent the plaintiff as he had led him to believe and that defendant’s actions entitle the plaintiff to punitive damages in the sum of $100,000. A motion to dismiss the amendment was filed on the grounds that its paragraphs are immaterial, irrelevant, and not germane to any issue; that plaintiff has elected his remedies, and that he is not entitled to punitive damages. The defendant also moved for summary judgment on the ground, among others, that the liability of the defendant cannot exceed the sum of $5,000. Both motions were sustained, and the plaintiff appeals. The defendant did not appeal or file a cross appeal.
This court by the majority opinion holds that summary judgment was properly granted in favor of defendant and against plaintiff as to $5,000 of the recovery sought, and affirms the judgment of the trial court in that respect. In this judgment I concur.
As to the claim for punitive damages, this court by the majority opinion holds that the amendment should not have been dismissed as not germane, or because the plaintiff is barred from recovering punitive damages, and adds, “This does not mean that the plaintiff is entitled to punitive damages on an action ex contractu, but merely that he has a right to pursue contradictory claims so far as the pleading stage of this litigation is concerned.” I dissent from this judgment.
*339It is my view that the trial court did not err in dismissing the amendment relating to claimed punitive damages, and accordingly that the judgment of the trial court in that respect should be affirmed.
Plaintiff’s original complaint is predicated on the theory of money had and received, paragraph 13 thereof expressly alleging: “Plaintiff avers this is an action for money had and received, which plaintiff, ex aequo et bono, is entitled to recover and which the defendant is not entitled to retain,” etc. This claim is an action ex contractu. Teem v. Ellijay, 89 Ga. 154 (2) (15 SE 33); Houze v. Blackwell, 20 Ga. App. 438, 439 (93 SE 16). See also Hutchens v. Seaboard A.-L. R., 144 Ga. 312 (87 SE 28); Martin v. Newberry, 169 Ga. 676 (151 SE 380); Bigby v. Bigby, 213 Ga. 648 (100 SE2d 734); Perry v. Griffin, 39 Ga. App. 170 (146 SE 567).
The original complaint prayed for judgment against the defendant in the sum of $10,000, plus interest. The amendment added four additional paragraphs, numbered 14, 15, 16 and 17, alleging, among other things, that plaintiff was entitled to punitive damages for fraud and deceit, and that plaintiff should recover punitive damages in the amount of $100,000 “in order to deter defendant from similar conduct in the future,” and in the last paragraph thereof, numbered 17, “petitioner asks that in addition to the damages heretofore ■ prayed, he recover $100,000 punitive damages.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Plaintiff did not by said amendment undertake to change the original complaint or the theory on which the original complaint was based; that is, for money had and received, a suit based on an implied contract, or the theory thereof as an action ex contractu. While it is recognized that under the Civil Practice Act a cause or causes of action arising ex contractu may be joined with a cause of causes of action arising in tort or ex delicto, and that even the same cause of action by election may proceed under either or both of the theories of contract and tort liability, this is not the state of the pleadings in the case sub judiee. The amendment did not seek to convert nor did it convert the original complaint into an action ex delicto. See Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co. v. Goodroe, 98 Ga. App. 394, 402 *340(106 SE2d 45). It merely sought to add additional damages as punitive damages to an action brought on the theory of implied contract obligation and prayed for additional damages which as a matter of substantive law cannot be recovered in an ex contractu action. Code § 20-1405 provides that exemplary damages can never be allowed in cases arising on contracts. In the majority opinion it is recognized that “exemplary” and “punitive” damages mean the same thing, and it is in effect therein stated that the original complaint remains as an ex contractu action, and it is further stated in the opinion reversing the judgment of the trial court in dismissing the amendment that “this does not mean that the plaintiff is entitled to punitive damages in an action ex contractu.” It is also stated in the opinion that Code § 20-1405 “did not suffer the sudden death inflicted on Code § 3-113,” which relates to joinder of causes of action and which was repealed by the Civil Practice Act. Moreover, the forms set forth in the Civil Practice Act clearly recognize the distinction between actions ex contractu and actions ex delicto.
It is the writer’s view that the question here involved is not one merely of a procedural nature, but rather of substantive law in respect of measure of damages in a contract case, and that while under the former law a suit seeking a wrong measure of recovery is subject to attack only by special demurrer (see Hodges v. Ga. Kaolin Co., 108 Ga. App. 115 (132 SE2d 86); Strickland v. Flournoy, 95 Ga. App. 315 (97 SE2d 638)), the attack against the amendment as here made was properly the subject matter of a motion to strike or a motion to dismiss, demurrers having been abolished by the Civil Practice Act.
I would affirm the trial court on both of the judgments appealed from.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Jordan and Judge Eberhardt concur in this view of the matter.