Court Opinion

ID: 9848357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:17:53.267654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:15.411579
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
While fully concurring in the result reached in the majority opinion, I do not feel that it is necessary to overrule Spires v. Relco, 165 Ga. App. 4 (299 SE2d 58) (1983); and McGuire v. Winkler, 167 Ga. App. 104 (306 SE2d 70) (1983), as that line of cases is readily distinguishable from those relied upon in the majority opinion. In Spires there was a failure to pay under a lease agreement, and appellant contended that certain promises of service, training, etc., were offered as an inducement to enter into the contract. McGuire involved a contract of sale to purchase welding equipment. The purchaser claimed that he was fraudulently induced to enter into the contract by an oral promise to sell him the business and its goodwill. The oral promise was not written into the contract. Both cases were correctly decided by this court, as the oral promises were precluded by a merger clause in the contract. In Charter Med. Mgt. Co. v. Ware Manor, 159 Ga. App. 378, 383 (283 SE2d 330) (1981), Judge Carley, writing the majority opinion, quoted the rule from Wilkinson v. Walker, 143 Ga. App. 838, 839 (240 SE2d 210) (1977), which states: “Fraud cannot consist of mere broken promises, unfulfilled predictions or erroneous conjecture as to future events.” (Emphasis supplied.) Neither can fraud consist of oral misrepresentations which could have been ascertained by careful physical examination or reasonable diligence to discover the truthfulness of the allegations. See Alpha Kappa Psi Bldg. Corp. v. Kennedy, 90 Ga. App. 587 (83 SE2d 580) (1954), where the purchaser could have discovered by diligence the lake. depth at the boundary line to be 11 to 12 feet rather than two feet as orally represented. He could also have had the lake surveyed and discovered it to be I-V2 acres rather than 10 acres. See also Levine v. Peachtree-Twin Towers Co., 161 Ga. App. 103 (289 SE2d 306) (1982) (oral representation that storeroom lay behind locked door when it was actually a very noisy elevator control room).
The cases relied upon by the majority opinion, as in the instant case under review, all involve actual fraudulent concealment of present or past facts which were not readily discernible through the use of reasonable diligence. In Brown v. Ragsdale Mtr. Co., 65 Ga. App. *130of reasonable diligence. In Brown v. Ragsdale Mtr. Co., 65 Ga. App. 727 (16 SE2d 176) (1941), a speedometer was rolled back and the car represented to the purchaser as new. A similar situation occurred in Eastern Motor Co. v. Lavender, 69 Ga. App. 48 (24 SE2d 840) (1943), and City Dodge v. Gardner, 130 Ga. App. 502 (203 SE2d 729) (1974); 232 Ga. 766 (208 SE2d 794) (1974). In both of those cases representations were made that the automobile the buyer wanted to purchase had never been wrecked or damaged. Brown v. Techdata Corp., 238 Ga. 622 (234 SE2d 787) (1977), was similar in that it involved certain nondisclosures in the sale of business assets. While Meason v. Gilbert, 236 Ga. 862 (226 SE2d 49) (1976), is similar in that it concerns representations made to a purchaser of securities and the contract contained a merger clause, it also dealt with other statutory provisions pertaining to the sale of securities. The rule applied to these cases is long-standing: If there is actual fraud, the buyer is not affected by any of the provisions of the contract because the fraud rescinds the contract. In City Dodge, 232 Ga. 766, the court found that reliance upon the misrepresentation is a jury question, and, if the contract is invalid because of fraud, the disclaimer provision is ineffectual, as there is no contract between the parties. This line of cases therefore presents a different situation from those in the cases sought to be overruled. In the latter, there can be no finding of fraud where there are only future promises which are not incorporated into the contract, or where the erroneous nature of the representation is readily discoverable. The two differing lines of cases need to be preserved as standing for two distinct principles and positions.
Decided February 4, 1988
Rehearing denied March 1, 1988
Randall A. Constantine, for appellants.
John P. MacNaughton, Jane C. Barwick, for appellee.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Banke and Judge Sognier join in this special concurrence.