Jury finds Cumming farm not liable in llama breeding dispute

Who knew there were national experts on the subject of llama breeding?

Or that a disfigured face can bring a llama to a bad end?

Jurors in a Forsyth County courtroom know all about llama drama.

For five days this week, they heard testimony in a breach-of-contract lawsuit over the sale of two llamas by Kenneth and Katherine Smiley, owners of the well-known llama farm, Dixie Doodle, in Cumming.

Vicki Lynn Moses and her company, Second Time Around Mini Farm Inc., of Washington, Ga., had filed suit claiming that she should be refunded the $7,300 she paid the Smileys for llamas Lulu and Penny.

Lulu, Penny and Penny’s baby had to be put to sleep for wry face, a condition that includes a twisted snout, clef palet and, ultimately, can leave an animal unable to eat, Moses said.

Her attorney argued that, like someone buying a defective car, Moses was entitled to a refund.

The jury ruled late Friday in favor of the Smileys, deliberating less than an hour.

The Smileys had contended through the trial, which was peppered with testimony from expert witnesses and poster-sized pictures of doe-eyed and disfigured llamas, that there was no breach of contact and that they’d followed nationally accepted industry standards for llama breeders.

The Smileys’ attorney, Larry Ballew, credited the favorable verdict to “good facts,” “good law,” “great clients” and a “good, very smart and attentive jury.”

The case started in Forsyth County Magistrate, landed before the Georgia Court of Appeals and wound up before Forsyth Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley and a seven-woman, five man jury.

Moses had asked the jury for an award of more than $200,000 — including $172,379 in attorneys’ fees.