JJM Trucking, Inc., and Jesse J. Miller, Jr., appeal the grant of summary judgment to Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation “Caterpillar” in this action to recover a deficiency balance remaining on an installment sales contract following the sale of the collateral, a log loader. We affirm. A trial court properly grants summary judgment when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant demonstrates entitlement to judgment as a matter of law.1 We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, and we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the nonmovant.2 Viewed in this light, the record shows that Caterpillar filed its complaint on August 6, 2007, seeking $34,442.44 in principal, and 15 percent of that amount as attorney fees, interest, and costs. Caterpillar attached a copy of the installment sales contract, the guaranty, the demand for payment of deficiency, and the demand for attorney fees, the latter two of which had been sent by certified mail. Appellants were served simultaneously with requests for admission. Appellants filed a timely answer to the complaint but did not respond to the requests for admission.
Relying upon the admitted facts, which included that appellants had defaulted on the contract and guaranty and owed Caterpillar the principal sum of $34,442.44, Caterpillar filed a motion for summary judgment. On October 5, 2007, appellants filed a motion to withdraw the admissions. The trial court denied the motion on February 14, 2008. Appellants filed an amended answer on February 18, asserting, for the first time, that Caterpillar did not dispose of the log loader in a commercially reasonable manner, as required by OCGA § 11-9-610 b; that Caterpillar did not notify the defendants of the sale, as required by OCGA § 11-9-611; and that Caterpillar did not show that it was entitled to attorney fees. On April 14, the trial court granted summary judgment to Caterpillar, awarding it $34,442.44 principal, $22,904.24 interest to that date, attorney fees of $5,166.37, plus $125 in court costs, totaling $62,638.05.
