DeKalb County v. Deason

• Decision Date: 09 September 1965
• Docket Number: No. 23022,23022
• Citation: 144 S.E.2d 446,221 Ga. 237
• Parties: DeKALB COUNTY v. J. P. DEASON.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 446

144 S.E.2d 446

221 Ga. 237

DeKALB COUNTY v. J. P. DEASON.

No. 23022.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Sept. 9, 1965.

The Court of Appeals certified to this court the following question: 'Is the Civil and Criminal Court of DeKalb County, as created by the Act approved February 14, 1951 (Ga.L.1951, p. 2401 et seq.), and Acts amendatory thereof, a court of record within the meaning of that term as used in Section 9 of the Act approved March 17, 1959 (Ga.L.1959, p. 234; Code Ann. § 110-1209), authorizing the granting of summary judgments, so as to be authorized thereby to grant a summary judgment in a case pending therein, where such court does not maintain a writ docket; does not record its judgments in any permanent record book; does not keep any minutes of the court's actions, but does enter its orders and judgments upon, or file them with, the proceedings in each case, and does keep a docket upon which entries are made as to the filing of suits, answers, demurrers, motions, pleas, the amounts of judgments, and costs, but upon which neither the judgments themselves nor any of the contents of the pleadings are entered, and which court has the power to impose upon criminal defendants fines and imprisonment in misdemeanor cases?'

George P. Dillard, Herbert O. Edwards, Robert E. Mozley, Decatur, for plaintiff in error.

E. T. Hendon, Jr., Decatur, for defendant in error.

MOBLEY, Justice.

Neither the constitution nor statutes of this State define courts of record. The courts are therefore remitted to the principles of the common law to determine what is a court of record. Most of the courts of this country including Georgia, Planters' & Mechanics' Bank v. Chipley, Ga.Dec. 50, pt. 1, in determining what is a court of record have applied Blackstone's definition, to-wit: 'A court of record is that where the acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled in parchment for a perpetual memorial and testimony, which rolls are called the records of the court, and are of such high and supereminent authority that their truth is not to be called in question.' 3 Blackstone's Commentaries pp. 23, 24.

The question as to what is a court of record has been decided in only one reported Georgia case. Planters' & Mechanics' Bank v. Chipley, supra. This was an opinion by the Superior Court of Muscogee County rendered in 1842. That court's treatment of the question is rather exhaustive and well-reasoned. In arriving at the conclusion that a justice of peace court is not a court of record, it considered the history of English courts along with pertinent excerpts from such noted English authorities as Blackstone, Coke, and Bracton. This case and others since then make it apparent that no clearly-defined rule of thumb exists for determining whether a court is or is not a court of record. See 20 Am.Jur.2nd Courts § 26, p. 405. The presence of the following characteristics has been considered as indicative that a particular court is a court of record: (1) the court has power to fine and imprison; (2) the court exercises its functions independently of the person of the magistrate; (3) the court proceeds according to the course of the common law; (4) the court has a seal; (5) the acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled in parchment for a perpetual memorial and testimony, which rolls are called the record of the court and are of such high and supereminent authority that their truth is not to be called in question (i. e. Blackstone's definition).

It is generally accepted that the one essential feature necessary to constitute a court of record is that a permanent record of the proceedings of the court must be made and kept. A definition of such record generally accepted is that it is a precise history of a suit from its commencement to its termination, including conclusions of law thereon drawn by the proper officer for the purpose of perpetuating the exact state of facts. State v. Allen, 117 Ohio St. 470, 159 N.E. 591, 592 and cases cited. See also, Page v. Turcott, 179 Tenn. 491, 167 S.E.2d 350(10) and Naro v. State, 212 Ala. 5, 101 So. 666, where the Supreme Court of Alabama said of itself: 'This is a court of record wherein the acts and...