Abellera v. Williamson

We granted certiorari in this case to consider two questions.1 One is whether the Court of Appeals, after determining that the trial court’s rationale for granting summary judgment was incorrect, erred in failing to apply the “right-for-any-reason” rule and in failing to consider other grounds raised in the motion for summary judgment but not addressed by the trial court. The other question is whether the Court of Appeals correctly determined that a jury question existed on the issue whether the intervening criminal act of a third party was the proximate cause of the injury suffered by appellees. We conclude that the Court of Appeals erred in failing to apply the right-for-any-reason rule, and thus erred in failing to consider the appellants’ contention that the trial court correctly granted them summary in this attorney-malpractice action because there was no attorney-client relationship. We therefore remand the case to the Court of Appeals for it to consider that issue. Moreover, we agree with the Court of Appeals’s ruling on the proximate cause issue.

On May 12, 1997, appellees Elaine Williamson and Lucille Morris agreed to sell real estate located in Flowery Branch, Georgia.2 Appellant Blackburn, Walther & Sloan was selected by the lender to conduct the closing, and appellant Ronald Abellera, an attorney in the firm, was assigned to the closing. The closing took place on June 6. After the closing documents were signed, Abellera overheard a conversation between the buyers and sellers regarding capital gains taxes, in which Williamson stated that she “dreaded” having to pay capital gains taxes. Abellera then stated that a tax-free, like-kind exchange of property under IRC § 1031 could be completed if the parties were willing to re-sign closing documents. The parties agreed to do so. Abellera told Williamson and Morris that they would have to choose a third-party facilitator and gave them a brochure and letter from Section 1031 Services, Inc., describing the company as an exchange facilitator and a licensed escrow agent. James Gideon was named as the company’s president. Abellera told Williamson, “you can call him.”