Superior Roofing Company of Georgia, Inc. and Ron Herring collectively “Plaintiffs” filed suit in Fulton County against American Professional Risk Services, Inc. “AmPro”, and several AmPro employees collectively the “Defendants”, raising claims of breach of contract, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and an action in equity in relation to AmPro’s administration of the Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association of Georgia Workers Compensation Trust Fund the “Trust Fund”. The Superior Court of Fulton County subsequently placed the Trust Fund under permanent receivership and appointed the Georgia Insurance Commissioner as permanent receiver of the fund. The trial court granted the Defendants’ motion to dismiss, concluding that the Insurance Commissioner had exclusive standing to prosecute the Plaintiffs’ claims. On appeal, the Plaintiffs contend that the Insurance Commissioner did not have exclusive standing to prosecute their claims. Whether an appointed receiver of an insolvent trust fund has exclusive standing to prosecute the claims of the fund’s members and policyholders is an issue of first impression. Based on the statutory framework designed to protect the interests of the members and policyholders, we conclude that the Insurance Commissioner, as the receiver in this case, has the exclusive authority to prosecute legal claims that are common to the Trust Fund, and that the Plaintiffs have standing to prosecute claims that are personal in nature and not common to the Trust Fund. Accordingly, we reverse.
Under OCGA § 9-11-12 b 6, a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted should not be sustained unless 1 the allegations of the complaint disclose with certainty that the claimant would not be entitled to relief under any state of provable facts asserted in support thereof; and 2 the movant establishes that the claimant could not possibly introduce evidence within the framework of the complaint sufficient to warrant a grant of the relief sought. In deciding a motion to dismiss, all pleadings are to be construed most favorably to the party who filed them, and all doubts regarding such pleadings must be resolved in the filing party’s favor.
