GREEN TREE SERVICING, LLC v. JONES Et Al.

775 S.E.2d 714, 333 Ga. App. 184
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 23, 2015
DocketA14A2001
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 775 S.E.2d 714 (GREEN TREE SERVICING, LLC v. JONES Et Al.) 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
GREEN TREE SERVICING, LLC v. JONES Et Al., 775 S.E.2d 714, 333 Ga. App. 184 (Ga. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

ANDREWS, Presiding Judge.

Green Tree Servicing, LLC appeals from the reviewing court’s order confirming an arbitration award and entry of judgment in favor of Maxwell Jones and Cynthia Jones on wrongful foreclosure and related claims against Green Tree. Because the order confirming the award was entered without giving Green Tree required notice and an opportunity to respond to the Joneses’ application to confirm the award, we vacate the confirmation order and the judgment entered on the order, and remand the case to the reviewing court.

1. As a threshold matter, we address, sua sponte, this Court’s jurisdiction to consider Green Tree’s appeal.

The record shows that the reviewing court entered an order confirming the arbitration award in favor of the Joneses, and, upon entry of the order, also entered a separate judgment in favor of the Joneses. The reviewing court entered the separate order and judgment on the same document, and the appeal was taken from the final judgment.

It is undisputed that the arbitration concerned an agreement involving interstate commerce and was governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Pursuant to 9 USC § 16 (a) (1) (D) of the FAA, appeals may be taken from a reviewing court’s order confirming an arbitration award which would not otherwise qualify as an appeal-able final judgment under the traditional final judgment rules of 28 USC § 1291. Bull HN Information Systems, Inc. v. Hutson, 229 F3d 321, 327 (1st Cir. 2000). The contrary Georgia rule is that this Court has no jurisdiction to consider an appeal taken from a reviewing court’s order confirming an arbitration award; rather, upon entry of the court’s order confirming the award, a separate judgment must also be entered by the reviewing court, and this Court has jurisdiction to consider an appeal taken from the judgment. OCGA §§ 5-6-34 (a); 9-9-15; 9-9-16. But for the judgment to be appealable, this Court has also held that, “with regard to judicial actions confirming arbitration awards, the judgment and the order confirming the award must be on separate documents____’’Barge v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 245 Ga. App. 112, 117 (535 SE2d 837) (2000); OCGA § 9-9-15 (b).

[185]*185We first consider whether the FAA rule preempts the Georgia rule.

Because the FAA contains no express preemptive provision and does not reflect a congressional intent to occupy the entire field of arbitration, its provisions will preempt state law only to the extent it stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.

American Gen. Financial Svcs. v. Jape, 291 Ga. 637, 639 (732 SE2d 746) (2012) (citation and punctuation omitted). Moreover, “[tjhere is no federal policy favoring arbitration under a certain set of procedural rules; the federal policy is simply to ensure the enforceability, according to their terms, of private agreements to arbitrate.” Volt Information Sciences, Inc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior Univ., 489 U. S. 468, 476 (109 SCt 1248, 103 LE2d 488) (1989). Accordingly, Georgia is entitled to apply its own procedural rules where those rules do not undermine the FAA objective to enforce private arbitration agreements. Id.; Simmons Co. v. Deutsche Financial Svcs. Corp., 243 Ga. App. 85, 88 (532 SE2d 436) (2000). We conclude that both the FAA rule and the contrary Georgia rule, as set forth above, are procedural rules concerning appellate review of court orders or judgments. The Georgia rule requiring entry of a separate final judgment before an appeal may be taken determines only the efficient order of proceedings, does not discriminate between appeals involving enforcement of arbitration agreements and those involving enforcement of other agreements, and does not undermine the purposes or objectives of the FAA to enforce arbitration agreements. Accordingly, we find that the Georgia procedural rule is not preempted by the contrary FAA procedural rule, and that, even where other substantive FAA provisions govern the arbitration, the Georgia procedural rule applies.

Applying the Georgia procedural rule, we consider whether this Court lacks jurisdiction merely because, as set forth above, the reviewing court entered the order confirming the award and the judgment on the same document. We find that, although OCGA § 9-9-15 of the Georgia Arbitration Code (GAC) contemplates entry of a judgment separate from the order confirming the award, it does not require that the order and the judgment be entered on separate documents. To the extent that Barge, 245 Ga. App. 112, holds to the contrary, it is overruled. We disapprove and will not follow dicta in Alessi v. Cornerstone Assoc., Inc., 329 Ga. App. 420, 420 (765 SE2d 630) [186]*186(2014) citing to and quoting the overruled holding in Barge. Accordingly, we have jurisdiction to consider Green Tree’s appeal.

2. Green Tree appeals from the judgment entered on the order confirming the arbitration award asserting as error that the award was confirmed (and judgment entered) without giving Green Tree required notice and an opportunity to respond to the Joneses’ application to confirm the award.

Pursuant to a consent order entered in an action pending in the State Court of Muscogee County, the Joneses and Green Tree agreed to arbitrate their dispute pursuant to the provisions of the FAA. After a four-day hearing before the arbitrator, an arbitration award in the amount of $4,800,000 in favor of the Joneses and against Green Tree was entered on April 29, 2014. Two days later, on May 1, 2014, the Joneses filed an application in the State Court in Columbus, Georgia, seeking judicial confirmation of the award pursuant to 9 USC § 9 of the FAA. The application contained a certificate of service by the Joneses’ attorney stating that, on the same date (May 1, 2014), the application was served on Green Tree’s attorney “by depositing a true copy of same in the United States Mail, in a properly addressed envelope with adequate postage thereon.” The certificate of service shows the address of the Joneses’ attorney in Columbus, Georgia, and the address of Green Tree’s attorney (where the service copy of the application was mailed) in Duluth, Georgia. The record shows that, on May 1, 2014, the same day the application was filed and served on Green Tree’s attorney by mail, the State Court entered the order confirming the arbitration award, and entered final judgment on the order. On May 27, 2014, Green Tree filed a motion in the State Court to vacate the order confirming the award on the basis that the order was entered by the Court without giving Green Tree notice of or an opportunity to respond to the Joneses’ application to confirm the award. ButonMay29,2014, Green Tree filed a timely notice of appeal in the State Court initiating the present direct appeal from the May 1, 2014 judgment entered on the order confirming the award.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
775 S.E.2d 714, 333 Ga. App. 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-tree-servicing-llc-v-jones-et-al-gactapp-2015.