## Facts

- Two sellers (including Executive Excellence, LLC and a trust custodian for Richard R. Fritts) owned separate undeveloped tracts in Hall County, Georgia (approximately 15 acres and 4 acres).
- In December 2006, the sellers executed two written contracts to sell the tracts; the buyer-side interests were later assigned to Southern Tradition Investments, LLC and Martin Brothers Investments, LLC.
- The contracts conditioned closing on the buyers obtaining rezoning by a specified deadline (April 1, 2007).
- The rezoning was not obtained by the deadline, and the sellers rescinded the contracts.
- The buyers sued seeking, among other relief, reformation and specific performance, and recorded lis pendens notices against the tracts.
- The sellers counterclaimed for slander of title, alleging the lis pendens and certain third-party statements falsely and maliciously disparaged the sellers’ title and caused damages.
- The buyers later dismissed their claims without prejudice, but the lis pendens were not immediately cancelled or released.
- The trial court granted summary judgment to the buyers on the sellers’ slander-of-title claims and entered competing attorney-fee awards, prompting consolidated cross-appeals.

## Issues

1. Whether the buyers’ filing and maintenance of lis pendens, and alleged statements about the litigation, supported actionable slander-of-title claims.
2. Whether the trial court properly awarded attorney’s fees against the buyers, and if so, whether the award was properly limited to claims lacking substantial justification.
3. Whether the trial court properly awarded attorney’s fees against the sellers for pursuing slander-of-title counterclaims.

## Decision

- Affirmed summary judgment for the buyers on the sellers’ slander-of-title claims.
- Affirmed in part and reversed in part the attorney-fee awards.
- Remanded for further proceedings to determine and allocate fees to only those claims or litigation positions lacking substantial justification.

## Legal Principles

- Slander of title requires proof of a false and malicious statement that disparages title and causes special damages.
- A lis pendens filed in connection with pending litigation affecting title is generally privileged; without evidence overcoming the privilege (including falsity and malice), it will not support slander of title.
- Statements about litigation strategy, intent, or expected duration do not constitute slander of title unless they amount to false assertions about ownership or a property interest.
- Attorney’s fees for claims lacking “substantial justification” must be limited to fees attributable to the unjustified claims or positions; a party’s loss on the merits does not alone establish lack of substantial justification.

## Conclusion

The court held that the sellers failed to produce evidence of actionable, false, and malicious title-disparaging statements because the lis pendens were privileged litigation filings and the alleged remarks concerned litigation rather than title. It upheld summary judgment on slander of title and required a narrower, claim-specific approach to attorney’s fees, affirming some portions while reversing and remanding others for proper allocation.


Exec. Excellence, LLC v. Martin Bros. Invs., LLC, 309 Ga. App. 279, 710 S.E.2d 169 (Ga. Ct. App. 2011)