Asuamah v. Cendant Mobility Financial Corp.

690 S.E.2d 861, 301 Ga. App. 879, 2010 Fulton County D. Rep. 100, 2010 Ga. App. LEXIS 15

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: January 7, 2010
• Docket: A08A0210
• Status: Published

Opinion

Mikell, Judge.

In Cendant Mobility Financial Corp. v. Asuamah, 1 the Supreme Court reversed Division 4 (b) of our decision in Asuamah v. Haley, 2 in which we held that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Cendant, the non-builder/seller, on the plaintiff/ purchaser’s claim of negligent repairs. 3 In reversing, the Supreme Court concluded that

Decided January 7, 2010. Leon A. Van Gelderen, for appellant. Scoggins & Goodman, David L. Rusnak, Scott H. Michalove, for appellee.

the “negligent construction” exception to caveat emptor exempts from the defense of caveat emptor only a negligence claim by a homeowner seeking recovery against the builder/seller of the home for latent building construction defects about which the purchaser/homeowner did not know and in the exercise of ordinary care would not have discovered, which defects either were known to the builder/seller or in the exercise of ordinary care would have been discovered by the builder/seller. Inasmuch as Cendant is not a builder/seller of the dwelling purchased by Asua-mah, the trial court did not err when it granted summary judgment to Cendant. 4

Accordingly, we vacate Division 4 (b) of our opinion, adopt the judgment of the Supreme Court as our own, and affirm the judgment of the trial court. Divisions 1 through 4 (a) and Division 5 of our opinion were not affected by the Supreme Court’s decision and thus remain in effect. 5

Judgment affirmed.

Smith, P. J., and Adams, J., concur.

1 285 Ga. 818 (684 SE2d 617) (2009).

2 293 Ga. App. 112 (666 SE2d 426) (2008).

3 Id. at 124-126 (4) (b).

4 (Citation omitted.) Id. at 822.

5 See Shadix v. Carroll County, 274 Ga. 560, 563-564 (1) (554 SE2d 465) (2001).