Muhammad v. Allstate Ins. Co.

After Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company “Allstate” cancelled Ali S. Muhammad’s homeowners insurance policy, Muhammad and his wholly-owned corporation, Columbia Hills Management Company, Inc. “CHMC” Muhammad and CHMC sometimes hereinafter referred to as “appellants”, brought the underlying action against Allstate,1 asserting that the insurance policy was improperly canceled, and seeking specific performance, damages, attorney fees, and costs of litigation. Allstate moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim under OCGA § 9-11-12 b 6. Following a hearing at which all three parties were represented by counsel, the trial court granted Allstate’s motion and dismissed the action with prejudice. Muhammad, acting pro se, and CHMC, acting through counsel, filed a timely notice of appeal. We affirm. 1. We first address whether appellant CHMC has abandoned its appeal. Although CHMC, acting through its counsel, filed a notice of appeal in this Court, it has not filed enumerations of error or an appellate brief, nor has it properly sought any extension of the time for filing the appellate brief.2 Muhammad, acting pro se, has filed an appellant brief and a reply brief, but these briefs were signed only by Muhammad pro se, not by counsel for CHMC. And even though Muhammad is the sole shareholder of CHMC, as a non-attorney agent he cannot represent CHMC on appeal.3 “In this state, only a licensed attorney is authorized to represent a corporation in a proceeding in a court of record.”4 Thus, CHMC’s appeal from the trial court’s judgment is deemed abandoned and is hereby dismissed pursuant to Court of Appeals Rule 23 a.

We note that, even had CHMC not abandoned its appeal, CHMC has no standing to make a claim under the insurance policy at issue, because CHMC was a stranger to the contract. The insurance policy issued by Allstate on the property was issued to “Ali Muhammad & Rick Muse” as “Named Insureds.” Nowhere in the record is there any indication that CHMC was an insured under this contract. Under Georgia law, “the insured alone may sue on a policy of insurance.”5