Georgia Court Of Appeals, (August 13, 1996)
Docket number: A96A1434
DECIDED
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Judgment affirmed. Birdsong, P. J., and Blackburn, J., concur.

Green filed this complaint against Lanford, the administrator of Bentley's estate, to recover for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident between Green and Bentley. Lanford moved for summary judgment on the ground that Green's attorney Beskin entered into a binding settlement of this matter with Bentley's automobile liability insurer, Allstate Insurance Company. The appeal is from the grant of Lanford's motion.Approximately six weeks after the accident, Green signed a contingency contract authorizing Beskin to represent her. The contract did not expressly authorize Beskin to negotiate a settlement or place any limitations on his authority to do so. Be skin testified that Green in fact authorized him to settle her case without placing any limitations on his authority Green, on the other hand, testified she never gave such authority.Several days after the contingency contract was signed, Be skin notified Allstate that he represented Green, at which time he returned a $900 settlement check Allstate had previously tendered to Green. Allstate's claim representative Souther testified that at no time during settlement negotiations did anyone inform him or All-state of any limitations by Green on Beskin's authority to negotiate a settlement. Nine days after notifying Allstate, Beskin reached a $3,250 settlement with Souther. Green refused to accept it, stating that her medical expenses alone exceeded the settlement amount.The trial court granted Lanford's motion for summary judgment under the authority of Brumbelow v. Northern Propane Gas Co., 251 Ga. 674 (308 SE2d 544) (1983), where the Court held: "Under Georgia law an attorney of record has apparent authority to enter into an agreement on behalf of his client and the agreement is enforceable against the client by other settling parties. [Cits.] . . . The authority may be considered plenary unless it is limited by the client and that limitation is communicated to opposing parties. [Cits.] Therefore. from the perspective of the opposing party, in the absence of knowledge of express restrictions on an attorney's authority, the opposing party may deal with the attorney as if with the client, and the client will be bound by the acts of his attorney within the scope of his apparent authority The client's remedy, where there have been restrictions not communicated to the opposing party, is against the attorney who overstepped the bounds of his agency, not against the third party." (Footnote omitted.) Id. at 674-675 (2). The Supreme Court recently reaffirmed its holding in Brumbelow, in Pembroke State Bank v. Warnell, 266 Ga. 819, 821 (1) (471 SE2d 187) (1996).In reliance on Lewis v. Uselton,