Knowles v. Old Spartan Life Ins. Co., Inc., A94A0385
| Decision Date | 11 May 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. A94A0385,A94A0385 |
| Citation | 213 Ga.App. 204,444 S.E.2d 136 |
| Parties | KNOWLES v. OLD SPARTAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, INC. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
E. Kontz Bennett, Jr., Waycross, for appellant.
Gordon & Hires, Raymond S. Gordon, Jesup, Kopp & Conner, Neal L. Conner, Jr., Waycross, for appellee.
Angela Marie Knowles brought suit to recover the proceeds of her late mother's life insurance policy. Knowles was the named beneficiary of the policy, which was issued by appellee Old Spartan Life Insurance Company. The complaint acknowledges that Old Spartan paid the proceeds under the policy to Knowles's father as her "custodian." Knowles also joined as defendants her stepmother and her late father's estate on the ground that while alive the father and stepmother converted those proceeds "to their own personal uses." Old Spartan answered, filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and cross-claimed against the other defendants. Old Spartan's motion to dismiss was granted. Knowles filed a motion to vacate that order, which was denied. She appeals from the dismissal and the subsequent denial of her motion to vacate the dismissal order.
1. Knowles contends that the trial court considered matters outside the complaint itself and that the trial court's order therefore should be treated as the grant of summary judgment. See, e.g., Ledford v. Meyer, 249 Ga. 407, 290 S.E.2d 908 (1982). Knowles's argument, made for the first time on appeal, is that Old Spartan invited consideration of matters outside Knowles's pleading by arguing that the value of Knowles's property was equivalent to the $8,000 value of the insurance proceeds.
This, Knowles argues, is relevant to the question of whether Old Spartan improperly paid the insurance proceeds to her father since he was not her "legally qualified guardian" under OCGA § 29-4-2(b). Under that Code section, property valued in excess of $10,000 may not be demanded or received by the natural guardian until he or she is declared the "legally qualified guardian of the property of [the] child by the judge of the probate court." Knowles's complaint sets forth that the amount of the proceeds was $8,000, and alleges the existence of no other property other than those proceeds. Old Spartan's bare assertion that the "property" in dispute consists solely of the insurance proceeds is contrary to no element of Knowles's complaint; it merely states an inference wholly consistent with it. We find no support in the record for the proposition that the court's order should be treated as one granting summary judgment.
2. Old Spartan moved "to dismiss the above-styled action for failure of the complaint to state a claim upon which relief can be granted," apparently oblivious to Knowles's claims against its co-defendants. In its brief in support of the motion, Old Spartan acknowledges Knowles's allegation of wrongful conversion made against its co-defendants and makes no argument contrary to that theory. Indeed, Old Spartan relied upon...
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