Court Opinion

ID: 9590701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:57:44.904575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:31.373991
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Divisions 1 through 4 and 6 of the majority opinion. I write specially because I cannot agree with all that is said by the majority in Division 5 regarding the award of attorney fees.
The trial court based its award of attorney fees to appellees on both OCGA § 9-15-14 (a) and (b). Section (a) of that statute requires that attorney fees be awarded against a party who asserts a claim which lacks “any justiciable issue of law or fact” (emphasis supplied), modified by section (c)’s caveat that attorney fees not be awarded against a party asserting a claim (or defense) “in a good faith attempt to establish a new theory of law in Georgia if such new theory of law is based on some recognized precedential or persuasive authority.” Because of the casting of the language of section (a) in the disjunctive *116rather than the conjunctive, I read that section to allow attorney fees only when a claim has merit neither in fact nor in law. See generally Smith v. State, 15 Ga. App. 536, 538-539 (83 SE 886) (1914); Ga. Paper Stock Co. v. State Tax Bd., 174 Ga. 816, 819 (164 SE 197) (1932). Because section (a) is tempered by section (c), I read the statute to mean that even if the law is otherwise in Georgia, if the claim stands supported by “some recognized precedential or persuasive authority,” no attorney fees may be assessed against a proponent of change in the Georgia law merely for his or her good faith attempt to persuade our courts that the Georgia law should be changed. Such an attempt would not be a claim which lacks a justiciable issue of law, and should not be subject to the sanction of attorney fees under section (a) of the statute. In my view, that is precisely the situation in the case sub judice.
First, although recognizing the rule enunciated by the Georgia Supreme Court in Haggard v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. System, 257 Ga. 524, 527 4 (c) (360 SE2d 566) (1987), I do not agree with the majority’s routine application of the “any evidence” standard here. It is not simply whether appellant’s claim has factual merit that we are called upon to review, but whether it has some justiciable issue of law, and I have difficulty reviewing the merit of an attempt to change the law under an evidentiary standard. Second, we must bear in mind that appellant may not be penalized for trying to change the law in Georgia if he has supported his theory with “some recognized precedential or persuasive authority.” Although I view the Georgia law regarding “at will” employment as salutary, and consequently support it, I value even more the right and heritage of our citizens to have free access to the courts to challenge rules of our common law. In fact, while abiding by them as I must, I question the wisdom underlying both OCGA § 9-15-14 (which the legislature must reexamine as it expires in July 1989) and the judicially created tort of “abusive litigation,” see Yost v. Torok, 256 Ga. 92 (344 SE2d 414) (1986), for the same reason.
Other jurisdictions have, in increasing numbers in recent years, carved out exceptions to the rule allowing no cause of action for the “at will” discharge of an employee hired for an indefinite term. See, e.g., Weiner v. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 443 NE2d 441 (NY App.) (1982), in which that state’s highest court held that a complaint which alleged that an employment handbook included an assurance that discharge would be for just cause only stated a cause of action for wrongful discharge, even though the law in New York had been otherwise for almost a century. See also cases collected at 12 ALR4th 544, Annotation: Modern Status of Rule That Employer May Discharge At-Will Employee For Any Reason. Because the decisions of-other jurisdictions have certainly been considered “persuasive authority” by the *117Georgia courts, see, e.g., State Farm Fire &c. Co. v. Morgan, 185 Ga. App. 377, 378-379 (364 SE2d 62) (1987), aff’d 258 Ga. 276 (368 SE2d 509) (1988); First Ga. Ins. Co. v. Goodrum, 187 Ga. App. 314, 315 (370 SE2d 162) (1988), I find no basis here for the award of attorney fees to appellees under OCGA § 9-15-14 (a). I note that the majority’s failure to grant appellees’ motion for a penalty for frivolous appeal appears to be based on this very same reasoning.
Decided January 12, 1989
Rehearing denied January 31, 1989
Douglas R. Padgett, for appellant.
John F. Wymer III, Kelly J. Koelker, for appellees.
Nevertheless, I concur in the result achieved by the majority in Division 5 because I find evidence in the record of abuse by appellant of the discovery process, which supports the award of attorney fees to appellees pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-14 (b).