Sandra Murray sued DeKalb Farmers Market, Inc. “Farmers” to recover damages, inter alia, for breach of implied warranty of merchantability, following her purchase and attempted return of live lobster from Farmers. Murray appeals the trial court’s order of dismissal, order denying her motion for default judgment, and order awarding sanctions to Farmers, contending that the trial court erred i in finding that Farmers’s answer was legally sufficient and ii in awarding attorney fees to Farmers pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-14 b. Finding that Farmers’s answer was legally sufficient and that Murray did not oppose the trial court’s attorney fee award of $940, we affirm in part. Concluding that the evidence did not authorize the attorney fee award of $250, we reverse in part. We apply the plain legal error standard of review to questions of law, and we owe no deference to the trial court’s ruling. Phoenix Recovery Group, Inc. v. Mehta , 291 Ga. App. 874, 875 663 SE2d 290 2008.
The record shows that on June 6, 2008, a DeKalb County deputy marshal served Farmers with a copy of the summons and complaint by serving Jeff Maber, “in charge of the office and place of doing business.” On July 2, 2008, an individual named Frank Velasquez Monoger filed an answer on behalf of Farmers, denying the allegations in the complaint. On July 30, 2008, Farmers filed an amended answer to the complaint, by and through an attorney, who entered an entry of appearance on its behalf. Thereafter, Farmers moved for sanctions for Murray’s failure to respond to interrogatories and request for production of documents previously served upon Murray. The trial court granted Farmers’s motion to the extent it awarded attorney fees in favor of Farmers and against Murray’s counsel in the amount of $250. Murray subsequently filed a motion for default judgment, alleging that Farmers failed to file a timely and legally sufficient answer because the answer was not filed by an attorney. Farmers responded and acknowledged that its original answer was defective, but that its amended answer, which was filed by an attorney of record before the entry of any pre-trial order, “related back” to the time the original answer was filed, and, was therefore legally sufficient. Farmers also requested an award of reasonable attorney fees for having to respond to a meritless motion. The trial court denied Murray’s motion for default judgment as well as her request for a hearing on the motion; found that Murray’s motion was controlled by adverse authority; and that attorney fees were authorized pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-14 a and b. In its order, the trial court stated that “if counsel cannot agree on the amount of Farmers’s attorney fees and expenses, Farmers’s counsel may present an affidavit as to them.”
