Attorney Robert W. Hunter, III brought an action to foreclose an attorney’s statutory lien on real property owned by Walter S. Hornsby, III and his sister, Willena Hornsby Butler collectively the Hornsbys. Because the Hornsbys had extended an option to Southeastern Family Homes, Inc. to develop the land, Hunter named the Hornsbys and Southeastern as defendants. At the close of evidence at the jury trial, the Hornsbys and Southeastern moved for a directed verdict on several grounds. The trial court denied their motions and submitted the case to the jury, which returned a verdict in Hunter’s favor, awarding him “44.65 acres of land.” The court adopted the verdict and further awarded post-judgment interest. The Hornsbys and Southeastern appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which transferred the case to this court. Appellants contend that they were entitled to a directed verdict and that the award of post-judgment interest was unauthorized. Because the record demonstrates that the appellants were entitled to a directed verdict, we reverse. The issue of post-judgment interest is moot. A directed verdict is authorized only when there is no conflict in the evidence as to any material issue, and the evidence introduced, construed most favorably to the party opposing the motion, demands a particular verdict.1 The appellate standard used to review the grant or denial of a directed verdict is the any evidence test.2
The Hornsbys were co-owners of over 700 acres of property that had been owned by their maternal grandfather, Paul Dixon, who had died in 1941. The property, which was located near the Savannah River in Columbia County, had been in their family since 1870. Certain of the Hornsbys’ relatives were living on and farming the land, and Walter Hornsby testified that he had retained Hunter to “clear the title of that heir property.”
