In this foreclosure action, the trial court granted partial summary judgment to bankruptcy trustee J. Coleman Tidwell against National City Mortgage Company. Addressing its jurisdiction sua sponte, the Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal on the grounds that PNC Bank, N.A. was not a party to the foreclosure lawsuit and therefore lacked standing to appeal the order entered against National City. See PNC, N.A. v. Tidwell, 317 Ga. App. 275 728 SE2d 786 2012. We granted the petition for writ of certiorari to consider whether the Court of Appeals correctly held that PNC Bank lacked standing to appeal on behalf of its predecessor National City Mortgage Company. Because the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that the appeal must be dismissed due to the trial court’s failure to substitute or join PNC Bank as a party under OCGA § 9-11-25 c, we reverse and remand for the Court of Appeals to address the issues raised in this appeal.
Jennifer and Truman Littleton filed an action in 2007 against National City Mortgage Company alleging multiple claims related to the foreclosure of their home. While the action was pending, National City merged into PNC Bank. No motion was made to add or substitute PNC Bank as a party and National City continued as the named defendant in the case. In 2010, the trial court granted National City’s motion to substitute bankruptcy trustee J. Coleman Tidwell as the plaintiff. Tidwell moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted in part on the breach of contract claim. A notice of appeal was filed in the Court of Appeals. The notice was entitled “Defendant National City’s Notice of Appeal”; its first sentence states that “Defendant PNC Bank, N.A., the successor to National City Mortgage” appeals the summary judgment order to the Court of Appeals. In its docketing notice, the clerk’s office styled the case as “PNC Bank, N.A. v. J. Coleman Tidwell, trustee in bankruptcy for Jennifer P. Littleton et al.” The Court of Appeals found that PNC Bank filed the appeal and the record contained no order or other document substituting PNC Bank for National City as the defendant. Based on the trial court’s failure to substitute or add PNC Bank as a party, the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal for PNC Bank’s lack of standing. We granted National City’s petition for the writ of certiorari to consider this jurisdictional issue.
