In this legal malpractice action, plaintiff Edward E. Kramer appeals the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to defendants Daryl Von Yokely and Kenneth Muhammad, attorneys who represented Kramer in an unsuccessful federal case brought pursuant to 42 USC § 1983. Kramer contends that the trial court erred by 1 considering and relying upon the district court order entered in the federal case; 2 ruling as a matter of law that Kramer had failed to show that his attorneys’ alleged errors proximately caused the outcome in the federal case; and 3 ruling that the voluntary dismissal of certain defendants and abandonment of certain claims in the federal case would not support a malpractice claim as a matter of law. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm.A party is entitled to summary judgment if that party demonstrates that no genuine issue of material fact remains and he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The party who will not bear the burden of proof at trial need not affirmatively disprove the nonmoving party’s case; instead, the burden on the moving party may be discharged by pointing out by reference to the affidavits, depositions and other documents in the record that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case. We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, considering the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.Punctuation and footnotes omitted. Gibson v. Halpern Enterprises , 288 Ga. App. 790 655 SE2d 624 2007. See OCGA § 9-11-56 c. Viewed in this light, the record shows that the underlying federal case arose out of Kramer’s pretrial detention in the Gwinnett County Detention Center “GCDC” on pending child molestation charges. On August 25, 2000, Kramer was booked into the GCDC and informed detention officials that he suffered from several chronic medical conditions, including arthritis, psoriasis, sleep apnea, and asthma. As a result of his deteriorating medical condition, Kramer was released on bond on November 6, 2000. Nevertheless, on November 16, 2000, Kramer again was booked into the GCDC after he allegedly violated the provisions of his bond. Because his medical condition continued to worsen, however, Kramer was released on January 24, 2001 to go on house arrest.
After his release, Kramer hired an attorney to pursue federal claims against the GCDC and detention center officials for allegedly failing to provide him with adequate medical care during his confinement. Yokely and Muhammad later agreed to serve as co-counsel in the representation.
