Gearing v. Complete Wrecker Service, Inc. (1988)
Citation: 187 Ga. App. 242, 370 S.E.2d 9 · Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia · Decided: May 25, 1988 · Opinion: Sognier, J.; Deen, P.J., and Carley, J., concur.
Source note (2026-10-18):
- Links on this page to
https://static.case.law/ga-app/187/cases/0242-01.jsonare an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.
Case page. Legal information, not legal advice. Last verified: 2026-10-17.
Facts
A pickup subject to a credit union’s first lien was towed after a wreck to a body shop on the same premises as the wrecker service. When the owner did not pay the repair and rental-car charges, the companies, about three months later, “proceeded under OCGA § 40-11-1 et seq. to acquire and foreclose a lien on the truck as an abandoned vehicle” and sold it at auction. The credit union sued and settled; the owner intervened, alleging conversion. The trial court ruled for the defendants. (Source: https://static.case.law/ga-app/187/cases/0242-01.json , retrieved 2026-10-17.)
Holding
Affirmed. (1) A repairer could use the abandoned-motor-vehicle lien procedure for a vehicle left and “not been called for … within 60 days after the completion of necessary repairs,” even though the mechanic’s-lien statute (§ 40-3-54) was also available. (2) Failure to strictly comply with the notice requirements of former § 40-11-2 “does not mandate a conclusion that their actions amounted to a conversion” where the defendants made “a good faith effort to find and notify the owner” and the owner “knew the vehicle would be sold if he did not claim it.” (3) The statutory lien covers only “the reasonable fees connected with … removal or storage plus the cost of any advertisement,” but the shop could still refuse release until agreed charges were paid.
Reasoning
Following Shaw v. Wheat Street Baptist Church, 141 Ga. App. 883 (1977), the court weighed actual knowledge and good-faith notice efforts against the technical defects.
Practical impact
- Buyer at an abandoned-vehicle lien auction: historically, a defective-notice sale was not automatically a conversion, but this tolerance has been narrowed by statute: the legislature later provided that non-compliant removers forfeit fees (noted in purser-truck-sales-v-horton-2005), and since 2019 a sale requires a magistrate court order (O.C.G.A. §§ 40-11-19.1, 40-11-19.2), with the buyer’s title “free and clear” only through the certified order (§ 40-11-19.3).
- Owner: actual knowledge that a sale was coming weighed heavily against a conversion claim.
Good-law status
Later-treatment status remains needs_verification. The full CAP opinion was independently downloaded again on 2026-10-17. Treat as historical: the statute construed (former O.C.G.A. §§ 40-11-1 to 40-11-8) was repealed effective September 1, 2019 and replaced by a court-order procedure (Ga. L. 2019, p. 872, § 5/HB 307). No citator check run.
Applies in →
georgia, towing-storage-and-mechanics-lien-sales, motor-vehicles
Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the current primary source before relying on this summary.