Dolores Moreno is the mother of Gina Moreno, and in 2004, Dolores acquired a residential property in Gwinnett County. Three years later, Dolores gave a one-half interest in the property to Gina as a gift, and around the same time, Dolores and Gina signed a document that purports to be a contract. According to that document, Dolores agreed to sell her remaining one-half interest in the property to Gina, and Gina agreed to pay $75,000 to Dolores in $400 monthly installments. After six more years passed, Gina had made no payments to Dolores, and Dolores filed a lawsuit against Gina for breach of contract and for an equitable accounting as between tenants in common.1 The trial court granted partial summary judgment to Dolores, concluding that the undisputed evidence showed as a matter of law that Dolores and Gina had entered into a binding and enforceable contract for the purchase and sale of the property. Following a bench trial on the question of a remedy, the trial court awarded damages to Dolores for breach of contract,2 as well as fair market rent for her one-half interest as an equitable adjustment of the accounts of the tenants in common.3 Gina appeals, and we reverse in part, vacate in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.4
1. Gina contends that the trial court erred when it awarded partial summary judgment to Dolores and concluded as a matter of law that Dolores and Gina had entered into a binding and enforceable contract. We agree. Although the document that Dolores and Gina signed purports to be a binding contract, Gina offered evidence that tends to show that no contract was made. Indeed, Gina submitted an affidavit in opposition to the motion for summary judgment in which she said, among other things, that she had signed the document in question at the request of her mother for the sole purpose of enabling Dolores to demonstrate an interest in the property and that she was earning income from it. Gina also said in her affidavit that, as of the time the document was signed, Dolores consistently had made statements to indicate that Gina was not expected to pay anything to Dolores for the property.5
