By Order filed February 28,
2012, the Superior Court of Bartow County granted Lee
Welborn’s motion for attorney’s fees and expenses, after the
plaintiff refused the defendants’ offer of judgment made pursuant to O.C.G.A. §
9-11-68(a). The plaintiff, a driver for UPS, suffered a severe hand
injury when her glove became caught in a conveyor belt serviced several weeks
earlier by the defendants. After deposing every UPS worker who had any
contact with the belt, defense counsel was able to establish that no one from
UPS observed or reported a protruding wire in the lacing of the conveyor belt
after the defendants serviced the facility. Defendants tendered their
contract with UPS into evidence, which proved that defendants could only work
at the facility when specifically called out by UPS, and that there was no
ongoing contractual obligation to inspect and maintain the facility.
Defendants’ motion for summary judgment was granted by the trial court, which
was upheld by the Court of Appeals in Dempsey v. Southeastern Industrial
Contracting Co., Inc., 309 Ga.
App. 140 (2011). In ruling upon defendants’ motion for attorney’s fees
and expenses, Judge Carey Nelson found that defendants had made a good faith
offer of $60,000, which was rejected by the plaintiff, and that defendants’
$14,359.05 in attorney’s fees and expenses incurred after plaintiff rejected
the settlement offer were reasonable and necessary.
