Mills v. Parker

560 S.E.2d 42, 253 Ga. App. 620, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 219, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 49
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 17, 2002
DocketA01A1984
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 560 S.E.2d 42 (Mills v. Parker) 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
Mills v. Parker, 560 S.E.2d 42, 253 Ga. App. 620, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 219, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 49 (Ga. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

Eldridge, Judge.

On May 10, 2000, appellant-defendant-seller Hazel Lancaster Mills entered into a purchase and sale real estate contract (the “Agreement”) obligating her to sell her home, real property, and improvements known as 2300 Columbia Drive, Decatur (the “Property”), to appellee-plaintiff-buyer Reginald Parker. The Agreement established $125,500 as the sale price, required Mrs. Mills to convey good and marketable title to the Property by general warranty deed at closing set for July 17, 2000, and made the sale contingent upon Parker’s ability to qualify for a loan. Thereafter, Mrs. Mills changed her mind, twice notifying Parker by letter that she no longer wished to sell, and offering by her second letter to “work with [Parker]” as to [621]*621his out-of-pocket expenses.1 Parker declined to release Mrs. Mills from closing on the Property as scheduled.

On July 13, 2000, the closing attorney received a letter by facsimile from an attorney purporting to represent Mrs. Mills’s husband, defendant Urban Jules Mills, giving notice that Mr. Mills held an interest in the Property pursuant to quitclaim deed which Mrs. Mills earlier executed in his favor and that the quitclaim deed would be recorded “in the immediate future.” A quitclaim deed,2 dated March 20, 2000, was filed and recorded in the Superior Court of DeKalb County on July 14, 2000, the Friday before the July 17 closing. When Mrs. Mills failed to appear at the closing, Parker brought suit against the Millses jointly,3 in five counts seeking specific performance of the Agreement or, in the alternative, damages for breach of contract, damages for fraudulent misrepresentation of marketable title, attorney fees, and punitive damages for intentional misconduct causing harm. Parker sued Mr. Mills individually in a sixth count for tortious interference with contractual relations.

Mrs. Mills appeals4 from the superior court’s order granting Parker partial5 summary judgment, decreeing specific performance of the Agreement, setting aside the quitclaim deed in issue as a fraudulent conveyance and finding that fraudulently represented marketable title in the Property at the time of the Agreement. Mrs. Mills also appeals from the trial court’s order insofar as it granted Parker’s motion for sanctions, striking her answer, and awarding Parker default judgment against the Millses for their total failure to respond to his first request for the production of documents which sought the original of the quitclaim deed in issue. Finding the superior court’s grants of partial summary judgment for Parker to be error, we reverse.

1. Mrs. Mills contends the superior court erred, as a matter of law, in granting Parker partial summary judgment decreeing specific performance of the Agreement and setting aside the quitclaim deed as fraudulently conveyed to her husband. Further, she contends that [622]*622the grant of partial summary judgment to Parker was error upon the claim that, at the time of the Agreement, she fraudulently misrepresented that she then had fee simple title to the Property.

This Court reviews the grant of summary judgment de novo to determine whether any genuine issue of material fact exists for resolution by jury. Moore v. Food Assoc., 210 Ga. App. 780, 781 (437 SE2d 832) (1993). Summary judgment is proper where the moving party is able to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the movant is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). A defendant meets this burden by

showing the court that the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on at least one essential element of plaintiff’s case. . . . All of the other disputes of fact are rendered immaterial.

Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491 (405 SE2d 474) (1991). If the moving party discharges its burden, “the nonmoving party cannot rest on its pleadings, but rather must point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue. OCGA § 9-11-56 (e).” Speir v. Krieger, 235 Ga. App. 392, 397 (2) (509 SE2d 684) (1998).

(a) Fraudulent transfer. Mrs. Mills argues that the superior court erred in granting partial summary judgment setting aside the quitclaim deed as a fraudulent conveyance in that a jury question remains as to whether the quitclaim deed was made with the intent to defraud Parker as a contingent6 creditor under the Agreement. We agree.

Pertinently, the record shows that by her response to Parker’s first request for admissions, Mrs. Mills admitted that she held marketable fee simple title to the Property on the date she entered into the Agreement, May 10, 2000. However, by her verified answer to Parker’s complaint, Mrs. Mills denied that she was the sole owner of the Property on May 10. Upon the hearing on motion for partial summary judgment and by his brief on appeal, Parker argues that the quitclaim deed, dated March 20, 2000, filed and recorded July 14, 2000, prior to closing, was executed after the Agreement was executed since Mrs. Mills’s testimony was contradictory and not reason[623]*623ably explained. See Prophecy Corp. v. Charles Rossignol, Inc., 256 Ga. 27 (343 SE2d 680) (1986) (where favorable portion of a party-witness’s self-contradictory testimony is only evidence of such party’s right to recover, opposing party entitled to summary judgment in the absence of reasonable explanation for the contradiction).

The “admission” upon which Parker relies came in response to his request for admission stating, “At the time [you] signed the Agreement, [you] held marketable fee simple title.” Mrs. Mills denied fee simple ownership of the Property by her answer to Parker’s complaint insofar as it averred, “At the time of the Agreement, [you] held marketable fee simple title to the Property . . . and [were] the sole owner of the Property.” On the face of the pleadings, no more than confusion is apparent. An estate in fee simple is the entire and absolute property in the land. There is no greater estate or interest therein. OCGA § 44-6-20; Jenkins v. Shuften, 206 Ga. 315, 318 (1) (57 SE2d 283) (1950); Houston v. Coram, 215 Ga. 101, 102 (1) (109 SE2d 41) (1959). Marketable title is the ability to convey at closing a fee simple title without objectionable defect. Keel v. Anderson, 104 Ga. App. 296, 297-298 (1) (121 SE2d 505) (1961). Thus, if Mr. Mills here reconveyed his undivided interest in the Property to Mrs. Mills, she then would have had both a marketable title and a fee simple title. “To be reasonable, the explanation must show that ‘an honest mishas been made in the first statement.’ ” Merritt v. State Farm Fire &c. Co., 218 Ga. App. 652, 654 (463 SE2d 42) (1995).

Further, Mrs. Mills’s admissions and her answer were filed contemporaneously on September 26, 2000. Parker filed his motion for summary judgment on November 13, 2000. That Mrs. Mills filed her contradictory answer more than two months before Parker filed his motion for partial summary judgment does not make Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
560 S.E.2d 42, 253 Ga. App. 620, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 219, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mills-v-parker-gactapp-2002.