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Final Copy 290 Ga. 544

S11A1468. CHASE MANHATTAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION et al. v. SHELTON et al.

NAHMIAS, Justice. This appeal involves title to a house and lot in a residential subdivision in Forsyth County. The trial court granted the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, and the defendants appealed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. 1. On June 30, 1998, Marcus Shelton acquired the property at issue by

warranty deed. The same day, Shelton executed security deeds, which were later recorded, totaling $213,750 (the "Original Security Deeds"). In September 1998, Shelton executed and recorded a quitclaim deed conveying the property to his wife and two young children in three equal parts. Two years later, Shelton decided to refinance the property. The new lender, Choice Capital Funding, Inc. ("Choice Capital"), advised Shelton that it would not refinance the property unless the children's names were removed from the chain of title. Choice Capital instructed Shelton to hire a particular attorney to accomplish this task. On July 20, 2000, the attorney filed petitions

in the Forsyth County Probate Court for letters of guardianship of property of a minor with respect to each child, requesting that Shelton's wife be appointed as guardian of their interest in the property. However, the process was never completed. It is undisputed that the probate court never appointed the children's mother as their conservator,1 nor did it enter an order allowing the children's two-thirds interest in the property to be conveyed as security for a new loan. Nonetheless, on September 27, 2000, Shelton's wife executed and recorded a quitclaim deed that purported to convey her interest in the property, as well as the children's, back to Shelton, signing the deed once for herself and twice more as "Guardian of" each child. Two months later, Shelton signed an affidavit asserting full ownership of the property and executed a $252,000 security deed to Choice Capital (the "Choice Capital Security Deed"), which then loaned him that amount. The loan proceeds were used to pay off the Original Security Deeds, which were cancelled of record. In August 2001, Choice Capital assigned the Choice Capital Security
See OCGA

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