Whimsical Expressions Inc. v. Brown

Whimsical Expressions, Inc. Whimsical, former employer of Edgar Morgan Brown III Brown, appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Brown and denial of its motion for summary judgment on Whimsical’s breach of contract claim, which was based on Brown’s claimed violation of noncompete and nonsolicitation clauses. 1. We consider first the motion to dismiss appeal filed by Brown based on Whimsical’s failure to comply with Court of Appeals Rules 1 a and 6, requiring proper service on opposing counsel of all filings in this Court. Although counsel for Brown, on May 21, 2004, filed his notice of change of address with the trial court, the record below reflects that Whimsical’s counsel continued to serve Brown’s counsel at his old address, including Whimsical’s motion for summary judgment. Even though this improper service is one of the bases for Brown’s motion for attorney fees pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-14, still pending below, the records of this Court reflect that Whimsical’s counsel served its brief to Brown’s counsel at the old address.

Although we condemn the failure of Whimsical’s counsel to comply with the rules of this Court, which failure may result in dismissal of an appeal, because this is one of the grounds included in Brown’s motion for attorney fees, which is subject to appellate review pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-35 a 10,1 we elect, in the interest of judicial economy, to review the merits of this appeal.