Court Opinion

ID: 9567415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:53:39.609296+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:36.068131
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent as it is my view that the trial court correctly determined (as reflected in detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law) that genuine issues of material fact remain as to Reverend Kenneth R. Holmes’ claims against Achor Center, Inc. (“Achor”) for malicious prosecution and tortious interference with business relations. To this extent, I believe that the trial court properly construed the evidence in a light most favorable to the non-moving party’s claims and therefore found that Achor, as the moving party, failed to carry its burden of piercing the basic allegations of Holmes’ complaint. McGinty v. Goldens’ Foundry &c. Co., 208 Ga. App. 248 (1) (430 SE2d 185).
Malicious Prosecution. Two congregations were originally sanctioned by the United Baptist Church (“UBC”) to conduct worship activities on the Stewart Avenue property, a congregation led by Reverend William Sperry (the Reverend Sperry’s congregation) and a congregation led by Reverend Kenneth R. Holmes (the Reverend Holmes’ congregation). This arrangement was achieved after Reverend Holmes and his family joined UBC’s Stewart Avenue congregation in 1987, the Reverend Holmes’ congregation meeting at noon on Sundays after completion of the Reverend Sperry’s congregation’s services. Although functioning separately, the two congregations financially supported UBC. Troubles began, however, after UBC sold its Stewart Avenue property to Achor.
At the outset, Achor accused Reverend Holmes of improprieties with its clients, charges which resulted in a temporary restraining order against the Reverend Holmes. It appears, however, that after the temporary restraining order was not converted to a permanent injunction, Joyce Dorsey, Achor’s Chairperson of the Board of Directors, renewed charges that Reverend Holmes was breaching Achor’s dormitory rules and contemporaneously threatened UBC with criminal and civil responsibility for any improprieties accomplished by Reverend Holmes. Under pressure, UBC resolved (upon a vote which purposely excluded members of the Reverend Holmes’ congregation) to terminate Reverend Holmes, his family and (effectively) the Reverend Holmes’ congregation from further fellowship. Notwithstanding, Reverend Holmes continued his religious ministries on the Stewart Avenue property without pay, prompting UBC’s contact with law enforcement authorities on June 13, 1993. When the investigating police officer arrived on the scene, however, he did not immediately arrest Reverend Holmes. The officer first asked Chairperson Dorsey (the property-owners’ representative) whether Reverend Holmes had been previously warned against trespassing, a necessary element to support *404probable cause for the arrest of Reverend Holmes for criminal trespass. See OCGA § 16-7-21 (b) (2) and (3). Although there is proof that Chairperson Dorsey did not then have knowledge of any such warning from UBC, she advised the investigating officer that Reverend Holmes had been so warned. And based on this allegation, the officer arrested Reverend Holmes and took him to jail.
Unlike the majority opinion, the trial court’s order recognizes that the criminal trespass charge against Reverend Holmes was dismissed for lack of probable cause. And unlike the majority’s perspective of the evidence, the trial court recognizes that a jury may conclude that Chairperson Dorsey’s conclusory accusation to the investigating officer (i.e., that Reverend Holmes had been previously warned not to enter the Stewart Avenue property) was sufficient to raise genuine issues of material fact regarding Achor’s involvement in the arrest and its reckless or malicious intent in pressing charges against Reverend Holmes. I agree with this assessment, and further add that evidence of Chairperson Dorsey’s long-standing feud with Reverend Holmes would buttress a jury’s finding that animosity was a basis for her reckless or deliberate disregard to discover the truth of the report which resulted in the immediate jailing of Reverend Holmes. The trial court should be affirmed.
Tortious Interference with Business Relations. The majority justifies Achor’s interference with the relationship between Reverend Holmes and UBC by inferring that Reverend Holmes was a danger to (among others) “the females in the dormitory. . . .’’To this extent, the majority states that “Achor was attempting to exercise a legitimate interest, protecting the well-being of its residents and staff, when it sought to have UBC bar Holmes from the property.” However, in apparent recognition of conflicting (and seemingly weak) proof in support of assertions that Reverend Holmes is a dangerous man, the trial court found that Achor did not (as a matter of law) have authority, in contract or in law, to interfere with Reverend Holmes’ relationship with UBC by seeking his exclusion from the Stewart Avenue property. Specifically, the trial court recognized the covenant which allowed UBC representatives, such as Reverend Holmes, to be on the Stewart Avenue property and acknowledged that this proof, along with evidence of Achor’s tactics to have Reverend Holmes completely removed from the Stewart Avenue property, rather than just its dormitory areas, raised genuine issues of material fact regarding Reverend Holmes’ claim of tortious interference with business relations. Again, I agree with the trial court’s assessment. And again I add that evidence of Chairperson Dorsey’s emotionally charged threats to hold UBC criminally and civilly responsible for the consequences of Reverend Holmes’ activities (inferring without conclusive proof that he constitutes a danger to others) would authorize a *405jury’s finding that Chairperson Dorsey was motivated by malice when she pressed UBC to terminate Reverend Holmes’ ministry at the Stewart Avenue property.
Decided October 30, 1995
Reconsideration denied December 6, 1995
Long, Weinberg, Ansley & Wheeler, Joseph W. Watkins, Debra E. Levorse, Griffith J. Winthrop III, Thompson, O’Brien, Kemp & Nasuti, J. Patrick O’Brien, for appellant.
Ronald J. Freeman, Jerome J. Stenger, for appellee.
Under the circumstances of the case sub judice, and in light of proof that would authorize a finding that Achor personnel had animosity and unjustifiable mistrust for Reverend Holmes before and after his discharge from UBC’s fellowship, I cannot say (as a matter of law) that questions of Achor’s malice, probable cause and intent (to the extent that these issues are relevant to Holmes’ claims against Achor for tortious interference with business relations) are not for the jury. Indeed, a jury may well conclude that Chairperson Dorsey’s aggressive efforts to remove Reverend Holmes from UBC’s Stewart Avenue pulpit and have him banished from church property was nothing more than her unfavorable perspective of Reverend Holmes’ intent when he was near certain women who were lodged in Achor’s dormitory, an area which is apparently part of the church’s worship center. Consequently, in the absence of conclusive proof that Reverend Holmes acted or intended to act unlawfully, indecently or immorally while on Achor’s Stewart Avenue property, I would affirm the trial court’s ruling on summary judgment with regard to Revérend Holmes’ claim of tortious interference with business relations.