Court Opinion

ID: 9465317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:42:37.351629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:06.459120
License: Public Domain

CHARLES CLARK, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in all of Judge Ainsworth’s opinion for the majority except his conclusion that under Georgia law an assignee landlord may never be held responsible to his tenant for defects in original construction unless they are known, or should have been known, to the assignee before the original tenancy was created. Certainly the assignee should not have a superior defense to that which would be accorded the original lessor in his dealings with the lessee. Cf. Algernon Blair, Inc. v. National Surety Corporation, 222 Ga. 672, 151 S.E.2d 724 (1966). Yet the rule announced today would absolve any assignee who takes subsequent to construction even where the original lessor may have had full knowledge of a defect. I do not agree that Georgia has or will hold this to be the rule. However, in the absence of proof that the door in question was constructed to be watertight, I agree that the opening at its bottom would not qualify as a defect in original construction.