The Atlanta Gleaner.

Legal News

Edited By George Washington

(Testing in progress)

George Washington Statue at Federal Hall

William Davidsonv.Lindfield Holdings, Llc

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A21A0250
DecidedMay 12, 2021
JudgesCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Tags
CivilProperty LawProperty TitleFraudContract FormationCivil ProcedureDeclaratory JudgmentReversalRemand
Case Summary

Lindfield Holdings brought a quiet-title action to cancel a warranty deed that William Davidson had executed purporting to transfer Lindfield’s Snellville property to himself. A special master found that Davidson lacked authority to sign the deed, and the trial court cancelled it, quieted title in Lindfield, and dismissed Davidson’s counterclaims and third-party claims as moot. The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed the title ruling because evidence showed that Davidson’s authority to act for Lindfield had been withdrawn before he executed the deed. But the court held that the special master’s title findings did not resolve Davidson’s separate claims that Lindfield and others had fraudulently induced him to work without agreed compensation or had been unjustly enriched. Those claims fell outside the special master’s quiet-title jurisdiction and were not moot. The court also held that the conventional quiet-title claim properly went to a special master without a jury, while the unresolved non-title claims were not subject to that statutory jury-trial restriction. The judgment was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

Opinion

Loading published copy…

The Far Side
William Davidson V. Lindfield Holdings, Llc — The Atlanta Gleaner