Eva Elder wins lawsuit

The justices agreed with the February 2011 ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals that the legal claim by Eddie Elder’s only child, Susan Elder Crowe, was barred by the doctrine of “res judicata,” which prohibits the re-litigation of civil disputes previously ruled on by a court.

Crowe’s initial claim against Eva Elder was fraud. The decision Monday was related to a breach of contract claim that Crowe filed while the first case was on appeal.

Monday’s opinion states that “while Crowe’s first attempt to challenge the distribution of decedent’s estate was couched in terms of fraud and the present action is cast as one sounding in contract, the allegation of Elder’s misconduct which forms the basis of each cause is the same.”

The opinion adds: “Simply, Crowe’s restyling of the present complaint in terms of a breach of contract theory of recovery which was ascertainable in the original case will not revive her cause of action for fraud that was defeated on appeal from a summary judgment ruling.”

Eddie Elder died in 2004 without a will. Eva Elder filed for a year of widow’s support in Barrow County Probate Court. The judge granted her the entire estate as that year of support.

Crowe initially did not oppose the action, because she claimed that her stepmother had agreed to split the $3 million evenly among Crowe, Crowe’s three sons, and herself.

When that didn’t happen, Crowe in May 2007 contested the probate court’s award of the entire estate, but the judge dismissed the case, saying it had no jurisdiction. Crowe then appealed to the Barrow County Superior Court and lost, next taking the case to the court of appeals.

She filed the second, breach-of-contract lawsuit in the Barrow County Superior Court in July 2008 while awaiting the original ruling of the Georgia Court of Appeals. The Superior Court again ruled against her, as did the appellate court last February.