Adams v. Adams

580 S.E.2d 261, 260 Ga. App. 597, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 879, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 342
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 13, 2003
DocketA02A1782
StatusPublished

This text of 580 S.E.2d 261 (Adams v. Adams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Adams, 580 S.E.2d 261, 260 Ga. App. 597, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 879, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 342 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Phipps, Judge.

Charles Adams sued his brother, Thomas Adams, and Thomas’s wife, Joann Adams, to recover a house and surrounding acreage which Charles and Thomas’s mother, Ruth Adams, had conveyed to Thomas prior to her death. The trial court awarded summary judgment to Charles against Joann based on her failure to answer the complaint and respond to discovery requests. Among other things, Joann claims that she was not properly served with the complaint or with the discovery material. Resolving these issues and others against Joann, we affirm.

Ruth Adams died in 1995, survived by her sons Charles Adams, Thomas Adams, and Raymond Adams. In 1994, she had executed a quitclaim deed conveying her interest in the property to Thomas and Raymond. As administrator of Ruth’s estate, Charles sued to set aside the quitclaim deed and have the property awarded to the estate. He alleged that when his mother executed the quitclaim deed she was mentally incompetent because she was suffering from dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease and that her execution of the deed resulted from undue influence exerted by his brothers. Thomas and Joann were sued because they had become joint owners of the [598]*598property. It is located on Mary Sapphire Road in Dawson County and had become Thomas and Joann’s marital residence. This is the third lawsuit involving these parties and the issue of title to the subject property.

In 1997, Charles brought the first suit against Raymond, Thomas, and Joann. After Charles’s motion for summary judgment was denied, he dismissed the case without prejudice. He later reached a settlement with Raymond, who executed a quitclaim deed transferring his interest in the property to Charles.

In 1999, Charles filed a second complaint against Thomas and Joann. Prior to trial, Charles voluntarily dismissed the complaint without prejudice pursuant to an agreement entered into between himself, Thomas, and Joann on March 9, 2000. In the agreement, the parties acknowledged that the applicable statute of limitation had expired on February 4; and Thomas and Joann agreed not to raise the running of the statute of limitation as a defense if Charles refiled the action by September 9, i.e., within six months from the date of the agreement. The parties further agreed to attend mediation. According to Charles’s attorney, Martin Valbuena, the parties attended mediation as late as September 5, without reaching a final settlement.

Three days later, on September 8, Charles brought this suit against Thomas and Joann. Valbuena testified that when the complaint was filed, he sent a copy to Thomas and Joann’s attorney, Jeffrey Cox, because Cox had agreed to acknowledge service on their behalf. Cox, however, denies that he agreed to acknowledge service; and in late January 2001, Valbuena learned that Cox had not filed an acknowledgment of service. As a result, copies of the summons and . complaint were forwarded to the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office for service.

Thomas was personally served with process at his and Joann’s residence on February 2, 2001. Service was simultaneously effected on Joann by delivering her copy of the summons and complaint to Thomas.

Valbuena testified that on February 5, 2001, he received a telephone call from Cox, who related that Thomas and Joann had had a falling out and had become adversarial to each other, and that if they did not resolve their differences he would need to withdraw. On February 6, Cox sent Joann a letter at the Mary Sapphire Road address informing her of his desire to withdraw as her attorney due to a potential conflict. In the letter, Cox told Joann that she had the burden of keeping the court informed as to where notices, pleadings, and other papers should be served, and that all further notices would be made upon her at her last known address. Joann received-and signed for the letter on February 7. On March 2, Cox filed a motion to with[599]*599draw, and on March 8 the court entered orders granting Cox’s motions to withdraw as counsel for both Thomas and Joann.

Neither Thomas nor Joann responded to Charles’s third complaint, and on May 12, Charles served interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests to admit on Thomas and Joann through the mail in an envelope addressed to them both at thé Mary Sapphire Road residence. Although these papers were clearly identified as discovery requests, the certificate of service filed on May 16 contained a clerical error incorrectly identifying the papers as discovery responses. Neither Thomas nor Joann responded to the discovery requests, even though on July 10, Christina Wagner filed an entry of appearance as Joann’s attorney.

On October 9, Charles moved for summary judgment on the ground that Thomas’s and Joann’s failure to respond to the requests for admissions resulted in admission of the matters set forth in the requests, thereby resolving issues of fact in Charles’s favor. Although Thomas did not respond to Charles’s motion for summary judgment, Joann filed a response on November 7, arguing she had not been properly served with either the complaint or the discovery requests. To support her argument as to the invalidity of service of the complaint, Joann submitted her own affidavit, as well as affidavits executed by her former attorney Cox. In her affidavit, Joann testified that when Thomas was served on February 2, his interests in the litigation had become adverse to hers, and that he never provided her with a copy of the summons or complaint. In his affidavit, Cox testified that after the complaint in this case was filed, Thomas decided to support Charles in the litigation and that Charles’s attorney Valbuena was aware of this prior to service of the complaint on Thomas on February 2. On November 12, Joann moved for summary judgment, arguing that by delaying service of process until approximately six months after the complaint was filed, Charles was guilty of laches.

A hearing on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment was held on February 20, 2002. Charles did not file his discovery documents with the court until the date of the hearing. On March 4, the trial court entered an order granting Charles’s motion for summary judgment. Citing a line of cases represented by Wolfe v. Rhodes,1 the court ruled that Joann was properly served through process left with her husband Thomas at their marital residence. Among other things, the court also ruled that Joann’s assertion of the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction due to Charles’s laches in perfecting service was not timely.

[600]*600On or about March 21, Joann for the first time filed an answer to the complaint and a motion to withdraw her admissions, among other things. As support, she introduced an affidavit in which Thomas testified that “[i]n the early part of 2001,” Valbuena informed him over the telephone that Charles would grant him a life estate in the property if he would assist Charles in the litigation against Joann, and that he informed Charles within the week that he would accept the settlement offer. In his affidavit, Thomas further averred that around the time he accepted the life estate, he and Joann became estranged and hostile toward one another, and that he had no recollection of giving her a copy of the complaint or the discovery material.

1. Joann first contends that the trial court erred in ruling that she was validly served with process.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
580 S.E.2d 261, 260 Ga. App. 597, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 879, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-adams-gactapp-2003.