Big Decisions Come As Georgia Supreme Court Nears The End Of Its Term

The Georgia Supreme Court is reaching the end of its April Term. This means that cases submitted to the Court during the December Term that have not yet been decided will be decided in the next few weeks. On June 18, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a number of significant decisions.

Colonial Oil Ind., Inc. v. Lynchar, Inc., Case No. S18G1788. This case involves the enforcement of agreements guaranteeing the payment of a debt. The relevant agreement identified the debtor as T&W Oil, Inc. When the debt was not paid, Colonial sued the two guarantors. The guarantors claimed that the guaranty agreement was unenforceable because T&W Oil was not a legal entity. It was a tradename used by Lynchar, Inc. The Georgia Court of Appeals, applying one of its prior decisions, ruled the guaranties were unenforceable because they had identified the principal debtor only by its trade name and not by its legal name. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed. The Court ruled that neither the Statute of Frauds nor the rule requiring the strict construction of guaranty agreements prevented the enforcement of the guaranties. Whether identifying the debtor as T&W Oil was deemed a misnomer or the use of a trade name, the guaranties adequately identified the debtor. Therefore, the guaranties were enforceable.

The Opinion is available at https://www.gasupreme.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/s17g1788.pdf

Bibbs v. Toyota Motor Corp., Case No. S18Q0075. In this case, the Georgia Supreme Court answered certified questions from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia about the interaction between a wrongful death action and the decedent's previous personal injury suit that had been settled. An accident had occurred in September 1992 in which an individual was injured and left in a coma. The injured person's personal representative had filed a lawsuit against Toyota. In that personal injury suit, the jury awarded the plaintiff a substantial recovery for medical expenses, life care expenses and past and future pain and suffering. The personal injury action was settled.

Twenty years later, the injured person passed away and the husband and surviving children filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota. The issue before the Court was what impact the settlement paid in the personal injury case should have on the damages available in the wrongful death case.

The Court ruled that to avoid a double recovery, the plaintiffs in the wrongful death suit could...