Lucas v. Bob Hurst Mazda-Peugeot Automobiles, MAZDA-PEUGEOT

• Decision Date: 14 March 1985
• Docket Number: No. 69598,MAZDA-PEUGEOT,69598
• Citation: 329 S.E.2d 593,174 Ga.App. 212
• Parties: LUCAS v. BOB HURSTAUTOMOBILES, et al.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 593

329 S.E.2d 593

174 Ga.App. 212

LUCAS v. BOB HURST MAZDA-PEUGEOT AUTOMOBILES, et al.

No. 69598.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

March 14, 1985.

Rehearing Denied March 27, 1985.

Certiorari Denied April 24, 1985.

William N. Robbins, Atlanta, for appellant.

David E. Allman, Donald M. Fain, Eve A. Appelbaum, Atlanta, for appellees.

BIRDSONG, Presiding Judge.

Lien for Legal Services. These proceedings arose when James E. Hall was killed as a pedestrian. He left no wife or parents but was the father of two illegitimate children. At the time of his death, no individual member of his family (his survivors) had any independent cause of action. Thus his sister, Mattie Mae Hall, brought suit in February, 1983 as administratrix of James Hall's estate pursuant to OCGA § 51-4-5 for two purposes: (1) to recover the full value of the life of James Hall (subsection (a), a suit on behalf of the next of kin (DeLoach v. Emergency Medical Group, 155 Ga.App. 866, 274 S.E.2d 38); and (2) a suit on behalf of the estate as personal representative to recover funeral, medical and other necessary expenses (subsection (b)).

Attorney Robbins was retained and undertook to represent the putative interests of survivors of Hall's estate as well as the personal representative of the estate. Between February 22, 1983, when the estate's suit was filed and November 15, 1983, when Robbins' legal representation was terminated, Robbins expended considerable money and time in developing the case file on behalf of the estate for the administratrix of the estate, Mattie Mae Hall.

Subsequent to the filing of the estate's suit, the Supreme Court recognized an entitlement in illegitimate children to share in a recovery for the tortious death of their father. Edenfield v. Jackson, 251 Ga. 491, 306 S.E.2d 911. In view of this newly recognized right of action in illegitimate children, the mother of the children, Joyce Lucas, filed a wholly separate suit on behalf of the children in October, 1983. Though this second suit protested the same wrongful death, it was separate from the suit filed by Mattie Mae Hall and sought to protect different interests.

Thereafter and independently of these two lawsuits, Joyce Lucas petitioned the probate court in November 1983, to remove Mattie Mae Hall as administratrix of James Hall's estate asserting Mattie Mae Hall had converted funds of the estate prior to judicial settlement. This removal action was approved and Joyce Lucas was substituted as administratrix. The order of substitution required Robbins to turn over his files to Joyce Lucas' attorney.

After Joyce Lucas had filed suit on behalf of the children in October 1983, a settlement as to that suit only was approved by the trial court. So far as is indicated, this left pending the suit on behalf of the estate filed in February 1983, for the recovery of funeral, medical and other necessary expenses even though a different administratrix had been substituted. On January 4, 1984, after Lucas had been substituted as administratrix of Hall's estate, judgment in the estate's case was approved. However, in November 1983, prior to settlement of the estate's suit in January 1984, the attorney Robbins had filed a lien for legal services...