Court Opinion

ID: 9579031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:50:48.12707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:12.337222
License: Public Domain

Eelton, Chief Judge,
dissenting. The crux of this case is whether the insurance company under the facts can appeal from a jury verdict against it without being penalized for so doing on the ground that it acted in bad faith. Bad faith in such a case need hot be redefined. All that is necessary in this case to arrive at the truth is to read the evidence in the damage action against the defendant in error and the dissenting opinion of the two judges of this court who dissented in that case. Reputable and able attorneys of the bar of this State, representing the insurance company, must be inferentially branded as having acted in bad faith to arrive at a judgment of affirmance in this case because they both were of the opinion that the case could be won in the trial and appellate courts. We as lawyers know that almost without exception attorneys control the conduct of litigation and that their advice is followed on recommendations to appeal or not. To affirm this judgment, to me, is to deny a litigant his legal and constitutional right. Regardless of the outcome of any particular case the gradual chiseling away of rights cannot but lead down the blind alley of loss of liberty. We cannot close our eyes to the legal principles announced by the courts of this and other States on the *892rights of citizens and litigants where the question of liability is a close one. American National Ins. Co. v. Holbert, 50 Ga. App. 527, 528 (179 S. S. 219); Life & Cas. Ins. Co. of Tennessee v. Freemon, 80 Ga. App. 443, 444 (56 S. E. 2d 303); Albergotti v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 48 Fed. Supp. 290, 291; Cotton States Life Ins. Co. v. Edwards, 74 Ga. 220 (4); Travelers Ins. Co. v. Sheppard, 85 Ga. 751 (4) (12 S. E. 18); Southern Ins. Co. v. Ray, 40 Ga. App. 262 (149 S. E. 304); Life & Casualty Ins. Co. v. Blackburn, 59 Ga. App. 479 (1 S. E. 2d 450); New York Life Ins. Co. v. Ittner, 64 Ga. App. 806 (14 S. E. 2d 203); Pearl Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Nichols, 73 Ga. App. 452 (37 S. E. 2d 227).
The evidence showed not one single circumstance where the plaintiff in error did anything or left anything undone which it did not have a right to do under the contract of insurance.
The evidence in the damage action would have authorized a verdict for the defendant and under the rulings of this court the right to appeal the jury’s verdict without penalty is academic and fundamental.
Other matters were involved in the trial of this case which were not alleged in the petition which was held not to be subject to demurrer. Among other things were the provisions of the policy of insurance and the entire record in the damage action showing the dissent by two judges of this court. See 93 Ga. App. 23.