Court Opinion

ID: 9851914
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:21:30.718165+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:19.342495
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Judge,
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment of reversal, but not for the reasons given. My views are as fol-, lows.
The so-called third party complaint is as follows: "Come now the defendants, Louis D. Zakas and Zanac, Inc. and file this their third-party complaint. I. The above named plaintiffs have filed a complaint against the above named defendants, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 'A’, and defendants have filed their respective answers to said complaint, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 'B’. II. The third-party defendant named herein is S. M. & M. Realty Corp., a Georgia Corporation, subject to the jurisdiction of this court; and can be served by service upon Mr. Charles W. Bergmen, Secretary — First National Bank Building— Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia 30303. III. The defendants herein show that if any fire caused damage or loss to premises located and known as 689 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia, which *173is property owned by S. M. & M. Realty Corp., was occasioned by negligence of said third-party defendant in its failure to provide a safe and suitable exhaust system for the smoke and flames that originated in the operation of the restaurant business of defendant Zanac, Inc. Wherefore defendants demand judgment.” By amendment the following was added to the third-party complaint: "Further, the walls of the building and premises leased from third-party defendant and involved in this action contained grease and flammable material unknown to defendants which caused same to be unsafe and structurally unsound. That the responsibility thereof was third-party defendant’s and defendants should be discharged.” This pleading does not constitute a third-party complaint for which relief can be granted under the statute. The complaint specifically denies that the third-party plaintiff is liable to the plaintiff in the main action and seeks to place the blame entirely upon the third-party defendant, in effect, an attempt to substitute the third-party defendant for the defendant in the main action. This is not the purpose of the third-party proceeding, nor can it be done under a third-party proceeding, or any other proceeding in the present case by the defendant to implead this third-party defendant. See Central of Ga. R. Co. v. Lester, 118 Ga. App. 794, 800 (165 SE2d 587). The third-party proceeding applies solely to a defendant bringing in a third-party who is or may be liable over to him in the event of a recovery by the plaintiff in the main action. Worrill v. Pitney-Bowes, Inc., 119 Ga. App. 258 (167 SE2d 236); Central of Ga. R. Co. v. Lester, 118 Ga. App. 794, 800, supra, and citations. No such case is pleaded here; in fact, the pleading of this "third-party complainant” denies such a status exists and therefore affirmatively shows that no third-party claim exists. Under these circumstances, the denial of the third-party defendant’s motion for summary judgment was erroneous.