Newsroom - December 2008
Parker Hudson obtained a significant victory for a bank client in a class action lawsuit pending since 2003. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's ruling and determined that the named plaintiffs' claims fail as a matter of law. In the trial court, Parker Hudson had filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the named plaintiffs' claims were barred by (1) Georgia's voluntary payment doctrine (because the named plaintiffs paid the disputed fees even though they knew they disputed them); and (2) the doctrine of judicial estoppel (because the named plaintiffs failed to include their fee dispute with our client on their bankruptcy schedules even though they admitted knowing about the dispute at the time they filed for bankruptcy). Because no other individual plaintiffs had been named, summary judgment in our client's favor against the named plaintiffs effectively would dismiss the class and avoid expensive class discovery involving mortgage fee issues dating back to 1998. Although the trial court denied our client's motion for summary judgment, in an unusual move, the Court of Appeals granted our client's application to review the trial court's decision denying Parker Hudson's motion for summary judgment. Not only did the Court of Appeals agree to hear the discretionary appeal, but the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's decision, and determined that the trial court improperly denied summary judgment based on Georgia's voluntary payment doctrine.