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Dodson v. Sykes Indus. Holdings LLC

The trial court erred in ruling on the defendant's summary judgment motion while the plaintiff's motion to compel discovery was pending.

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Donald R. Dodson brought suit alleging that he has an ownership interest in and an employment agreement with Sykes Industrial Holdings, LLC “Sykes LLC” and that the company failed to honor those agreements and failed to pay him for his services. The defendants contend that Dodson was only ever a trainee and that they never agreed that Dodson would be an owner or receive commissions. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, and Dodson appeals. We hold that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment because Dodson had a motion to compel pending that appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence and he moved for a continuance of the hearing on the motion for summary judgment so that the court could address his motion first. We agree and therefore vacate and remand for further proceedings.

Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 c. We review a grant or denial of summary judgment de novo and construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Home Builders Assn. of Savannah v. Chatham County, 276 Ga. 243, 245 1 577 SE2d 564 2003.

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