122 Ga. App. 594 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1970
This appeal arises out of an action for malicious use of process brought by the appellant in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, against the appellees, one of whom was the attorney for two of the appellees, seeking recovery of damages occasioned by the levy of a void attachment. The appellee attorney made a motion to dismiss the complaint as to him, and the trial judge, in rendering his judgment dismissing the complaint as to the attorney, recited in the order that he took judicial notice of a holding of the trial judge in the attachment action in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, overruling a motion to dismiss the levy, a renewed motion to dismiss the levy, and motions to remove the attachment and dismiss the levy and upholding the validity of the attachment proceeding. The order also recited the taking of judicial notice of the opinion of this court in the appeal from these rulings in the attachment proceedings as reported in Kazakos v. Soteres, 120 Ga. App. 258 (170 SE2d 50). The trial court in sustaining the "motion to dismiss” apparently acted upon the theory that the matters of which he took judicial notice conclusively showed probable cause for the issuance of the attachment. See Short & Co. v. Spragins, Buck & Co., 104 Ga, 628 (30 SE 810); Georgia Loan & Trust Co. v. Johnston, 116 Ga. 628 (43 SE 27). The complainant appealed from this order and enumerated error thereon. Appellee made a motion to dismiss the appeal. Held:
1. The motion to dismiss the appeal is denied on the authority of Sanders v. Culpepper, 226 Ga. 598 (176 SE2d 83), and the cases therein cited, among which is Johnson v. Motor Contract Co., 186 Ga. 466 (1) (198 SE 59); and Veal v. Beall, 189 Ga. 31, 33 (5 SE2d 5).
2. The trial court’s consideration of materials other than the complaint in the present case converted the motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment. Section 12 (b) of the Civil Practice Act (Ga. L. 1966, pp. 609, 623; Code Ann. § 81A-112 (b)).
3. The complaint did not allege the fact that in. the attachment
Judgment reversed.