ARS Mechanical, LLC “ARS” installed an air conditioning system at the Church of Greater Works, Inc. “Church”, which resulted in extensive property damage. Thereafter, Southern Mutual Church Insurance Company “Southern Mutual”, the Church’s insurer, paid the Church for its loss. The Church filed suit against ARS asserting contract and negligence claims, and Southern Mutual was later substituted as the real party plaintiff based on the Church’s execution of an assignment in its favor. Southern Mutual appeals from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of ARS, arguing that the trial court erred in applying the voluntary payment doctrine and the acceptance doctrine1 to bar its action against ARS, and requiring it to pay costs to ARS. Finding that Southern Mutual had no contractual obligation to pay the Church for its loss and that its action was barred by the voluntary payment doctrine, we affirm. 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. A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Matjoulis v. Integon Gen. Ins. Corp ., 226 Ga. App. 459 1 486 SE 2d 684 1997. So viewed, the record shows that in early 2004, Pastor Darryl Winston, the Church’s head minister, asked Corey Hammonds, a member of the Church, to solicit a bid from ARS for the installation of an air conditioning system at the Church. Thereafter, Winston authorized Hammonds to accept a bid from ARS, and on May 15, 2004, Hammonds’ company, Hammonds Properties, entered into a contract with ARS to install four HVAC systems for the Church. Sadat Nichols and Al Shepherd, co-owners of ARS, commenced work, which consisted of coring holes in the roof for fresh air intakes, installing flashing and air ducts, and placing tents to cover the holes. On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, after coring the fourth hole, Nichols observed water “dripping from up under the roof” between the concrete slab and roofing material, and advised Winston that water “is penetrating the roof somewhere on the roof and getting up under the roof.” Winston inspected the roof and directed Nichols to continue work.
During the Memorial Day weekend, it rained heavily, resulting in extensive water and property damage to several rooms in the Church in excess of $150,000. On May 30, 2004, Winston contacted Southern Mutual and reported that a tree limb had fallen on the Church’s roof and caused the damage. The claim was assigned to claims manager John Rentiers, who in turn assigned the claim to J.R. Hood, a local adjuster with Custard Insurance Adjusters, Inc. On June 2, 2004, Hood inspected the Church’s property and engaged a local contractor, Bill Day of Northridge Restoration, to inspect the Church’s roof. Day inspected the roof and concluded that a tree limb had not caused the damage to the roof, but that “HVAC installers on the site had cut openings in the flat, built-up roof to install ductwork.” He observed that the vent stacks previously installed by ARS were unprotected and unflashed, so he covered the stacks with blue plastic tarps to protect them from further infiltration. Northridge Restoration also engaged an engineer, Dan Sheehan, to inspect the roof, who also faulted ARS “for cutting holes in the roof and then applying the flashing incorrectly.” These findings were contained in Hood’s June 8, 2004 report to Southern Mutual. In subsequent reports dated June 26, 2004 and August 23, 2004, Hood affirmed that water infiltration was attributable to penetrations cut through the roof by HVAC technicians installing air ducts.
