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Amador v. Thomas

The trial court erred in instructing the jury that the failure to follow statutory notice requirements renders a materialman's lien invalid and makes the lien claimant liable for damages.

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This case began as a quia timet quiet title action by a property owner, Jeffrey Thomas, against two materialman’s lien claimants, Rodney Amador and James Taylor. After Amador and Taylor canceled their liens, Thomas’s claim against them for defamation of title remained pending, as did their counterclaims for breach of contract and fraud. Amador appeals final judgment entered on a jury verdict in Thomas’s favor. Finding that the trial court erred when it answered a question from the jury, we reverse. Thomas owns improved residential property on which Amador and Taylor filed claims of materialman’s liens in the respective amounts of $64,822.20 and $8,750. To obtain cancellation of the liens, Thomas filed the petition to quiet title. Thomas claimed that, contrary to the requirements of OCGA § 44-14-361.1 a 2, the liens had not been filed within three months after the completion of work and that copies of the claims of lien had not been sent to him by registered or certified mail, or by statutory overnight delivery; that the defendants had been paid the reasonable or contractual value for the work they performed; and that he, therefore, did not owe the amounts claimed.

Thomas complained that the claims of lien had created a cloud on his title to the property and had prevented him from selling the property to a third party who had contracted to buy it. Thomas asked that a special master be appointed pursuant to OCGA § 23-3-63, that the liens be canceled, and that he be awarded attorney fees and appropriate additional relief.

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