Daniel Rosado filed a complaint in equity in the Superior Court of Cherokee County against his mother, Carmen Rosado, and his sister, Carleen Pengg, in her capacity as trustee of the Carmen Ilia Rosado Trust, seeking to impress an implied trust upon certain real property belonging to his mother so as to give him a fifty percent ownership interest. The defendants moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted. Daniel Rosado appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which transferred the case to this court after holding that “the issue on appeal in this case is whether the trial court correctly applied the relevant legal principles to the facts in determining that appellant failed to produce sufficient evidence to support the imposition of a constructive trust, and as the grant or denial of the equitable relief sought was thus merely ancillary to the resolution of the legal issue, this appeal is transferred to the Court of Appeals.” Because we find that the trial judge correctly identified and applied the legal principles to the undisputed material facts in the record, we affirm. Pursuant to a sales agreement she entered into in August, 1994, Carmen Rosado purchased a house and lot known as 109 Indian Valley Drive in Woodstock, Georgia, from Clarence and Marie McIntosh. The purchase price was $110,000, plus the closing costs. The closing of this sale took place on September 30, 1994, at which time the sellers executed and delivered to Mrs. Rosado a warranty deed transferring title to the property. At closing, Mrs. Rosado paid $24, 058.81 in cash, and $88,000 from the proceeds of a purchase money mortgage. With regard to her purchase of this property, the undisputed facts in the record show that Mrs. Rosado was the sole purchaser under the sales agreement, the sole grantee under the warranty deed, the sole grantor on the deed to secure debt delivered to Standard Mortgage Corporation of Georgia in connection with the purchase, and the only person obligated under the $88,000 promissory note which the mortgage secured. Three days after the closing, on October 3, 1994, Mrs. Rosado’s son, Daniel Rosado, delivered a check to Mrs. Rosado in the amount of $12,000. On the memo line of this check, a notation indicates the check was for “investment.”
Almost eight years later, on March 27, 2002, Mrs. Rosado transferred title to all her real and personal property, including the subject property, into a trust called “The Carmen Ilia Rosado Trust.” She named her daughter, Carleen Ileana Rosado, now Carleen Pengg, as trustee. The purpose of the Trust was to provide for her support, maintenance, health care, safety and welfare during the remainder of her life. Sometime in 2004, the subject property was put on the market for sale, apparently to provide liquidity to the Trust to enable it to pay expenses related to Mrs. Rosado’s care.
