§ 9-13-104.Trial of damage issue where claim dismissed or withdrawn

Not every claim reaches a full trial on the right of property. Some get dismissed for insufficiency before trial; others get withdrawn under the one-time allowance in Code Section 9-13-103. This section keeps the plaintiff from losing the ability to recover delay damages just because the claim never made it to a merits trial.

After a dismissal for insufficiency or a withdrawal, the plaintiff may have a case made up and submitted to the jury, charging that the claim was filed for the purpose of delay. The defendant and claimant get the same power to resist that case as they would have in an ordinary claim case where damages are sought — the shortcut applies to the procedural posture, not to the fairness of the proceeding itself.

Once the plaintiff makes that proof, the jury, under the court’s instructions, may give damages the same way it could in a claim that went to trial in the usual course rather than being dismissed or withdrawn — drawing on the same 10-percent floor and value-based calculation found in Code Sections 9-13-101 and 9-13-105. The statute also sets the timing: this follow-up case is tried at the time the claim itself is disposed of, if the parties are ready, though ordinary continuance practice still applies if they are not.