Turner v. Harper, 27994
| Decision Date | 04 October 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 27994,27994 |
| Citation | 200 S.E.2d 748,231 Ga. 175 |
| Parties | J. H. TURNER et al. v. Wayne W. HARPER. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
H. Thad Crawley, Byrd, Groover & Buford, Garland T. Byrd, Butler, for appellants.
Richard T. Bridges, Thomaston, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
This case began as an action for specific performance of a contract in the trial court. The appellants here were the defendants below. Appellants filed a motion in the trial court to dismiss the complaint and for judgment on the pleadings.
The trial judge overruled these motions, and the effect of overruling them was to leave the case for trial in the trial court. The two judgments overruling these motions were entered on March 15, 1973.
The appellants sought and obtained from the trial judge a certificate for immediate review. This certificate is dated March 23, 1973, well within the ten-day period required by statute, but this certificate or order was not filed with the clerk or 'entered' until April 6, 1973, well beyond the ten-day period required by statute.
It is clear that the judgments entered in the trial court are not final or appealable judgments without a certificate for immediate review. Such a certificate must be obtained within a ten-day period from the entry of the judgment or judgments sought to be appealed. Code Ann. § 6-701(a2).
Code Ann. § 6-903 provides that the filing with the clerk of a judgment, signed by the judge, constitutes the 'entry' of the judgment within the meaning of the Appellate Practice Act.
We therefore have a question of first impression. Does the dating of a certificate within the ten-day period authorize an appeal by 'certificate for immediate review,' or must the certificate be filed with the clerk of the trial court or 'entered' within the ten-day period?
We hold that the certificate must be filed with the clerk of the trial court or 'entered' within the ten-day period in order to secure immediate review of a nonfinal judgment; and if the certificate is not entered within the ten-day period, then the party seeking review will merely have to await a final judgment in the case before he can obtain review of interlocutory judgments entered in the trial court.
Therefore, in this case the judgments sought to be appealed were not appealable judgments.
Appeal dismissed.
All the Justices concur, except MOBLEY, C.J., and JORDAN and INGRAM, JJ., who dissent.
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Duke v. State, S19M0969
...review, a litigant’s opportunity for appellate review arises only once a final order in the case is issued. See Turner v. Harper , 231 Ga. 175, 175, 200 S.E.2d 748 (1973). Waldrip upsets this arrangement.Moreover, despite the claims of Duke and the Waldrip majority to the contrary, OCGA § 5......
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Cunningham v. State
...in the clerk's office of the signed judgment. This is made plain in the latest Supreme Court opinion, that being Turner v. Harper, 231 Ga. 175, 176, 200 S.E.2d 748, 749, where that tribunal says 'Code Ann. § 6-903 provides that the filing with the clerk of a judgment, signed by the judge, c......
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Mitchell v. Oliver
...to OCGA § 5-6-34(b) does not have the effect of making the judgment appealed from res judicata of the issue. Turner v. Harper, 231 Ga. 175, 176, 200 S.E.2d 748 (1973). The holding in the second Bozard opinion--that the losing parties could still appeal the grant of partial summary judgment ......
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Laurens County v. Dixon, s. 49651
...but not entered until May 24, 1974. The certificate for immediate review is dated and entered on May 22, 1974. In Turner v. Harper, 231 Ga. 175, 176, 200 S.E.2d 748, 749, the Supreme Court held that a certificate of immediate review 'must be obtained within a ten-day period from the entry o......