Court Opinion

ID: 9854597
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:09:43.768172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:10.229921
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I cannot agree with the majority that entry of a judgment against Barton and Thacker jointly and severally modified the award in any way, much less in “a substantive way.”
This case is not one, such as Bowman v. Fuller, 84 Ga. App. 421 (66 SE2d 249) (1951), in which we are called upon to determine from the conduct of a party to a contract whether that party should be deemed to have been engaged in a joint venture such that the actions of another joint venturer will bind it or subject it to liability. Rather, in the case sub judice, appellant and another contractor, as a joint venture, signed a contract with a third party which labeled them a joint venture, thereby obligating themselves as joint venturers. In response to a similar challenge by a contractor to its denomination as a joint venturer, on the basis that profits and losses were not shared and there was no pooling of labor or equipment, the Supreme Court held in Seckinger & Co. v. Foreman, 252 Ga. 540 (314 SE2d 891) (1984), that the finding of joint venture was authorized because the agreement was called a joint venture agreement. Similarly, in this case, it is uncontroverted that the contract which forms the subject matter of this action recites that it is an agreement between A Betterway Rent-A-Car, Inc., as one party, and Barton Contracting Company and Thacker Construction Company, a joint venture, as the other party. It is undisputed that both Floyd A. Thacker, appellant’s president, and the president of Barton Contracting Company signed the contract, and that the words “Joint Venture” appear again in proximity to the signature lines. In my view, appellant may not be heard to complain now that there was no joint venture.
Moreover, even were we to accept appellant’s argument that it is not a joint venturer, unlike the situation in Bowman, supra, appellant’s liability remains unchanged, premised on the fact that it obligated itself by signing the contract in some capacity. Either appellant is liable in its capacity as a joint venturer, or it is liable individually. We cannot simply ignore the fact that appellant is a signatory to the contract. If it is a joint venturer, it may be treated in the same manner as a partner, because “we may treat the joint venture as a partnership composed of the adventurers without deciding they are partners.” Boatman v. George Hyman Constr. Co., 157 Ga. App. 120, 123 (276 SE2d 272) (1981). Under the provisions of former OCGA § 14-8-22, applicable here, as to third persons, all partners are liable, not *665only to the extent of their interests in the partnership property, but also to the whole extent of their separate property. Alternatively, if appellant is not a joint venturer, it has still signed a contract under which the arbitrators found liability, and it is thus liable individually.
Decided March 18, 1988
Rehearing denied March 31, 1988
H. Wayne Phears, for appellants.
John J. Almond, for appellee.
Since appellant is individually liable in any case, I see no need for any further proceedings, and I would, therefore, affirm the trial court’s judgment.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Birdsong joins in this dissent.