Cert Petitions: September 3rd

The Court granted cert in just one case today, Hooper v. Hooper. 

The underlying case is a divorce action. After the trial court issued a divorce decree, the husband filed a motion for a new trial, which was dismissed for failure to appear at the hearing scheduled for the motion. The trial court then awarded attorney fees to the wife for having to defend against the motion. Thirty days later, the husband filed a petition for discretionary appeal, seeking to review the custody the trial court's custody determination nearly five months earlier. Finding that this application was made well past the thirty day deadline, see OCGA 5-6-35(b), the Court of Appeals denied the application as untimely. In doing so, the Court of Appeals rejected the husband's argument that the application was timely since it was filed within thirty days of the trial court's most recent order (granting attorney fees to the wife).

The Court asked the parties to address the following question:

Did the Court of Appeals err in dismissing petitioner’s discretionary application to appeal as untimely? Compare Islamkhan v. Khan, 299 Ga. 548 (787 SE2d 731) (2016), with O’Leary v. Whitehall Const., 288 Ga. 790 (708 SE2d 353) (2011). 

The cert question appears to address the conflict of two general principles of appellate jurisdiction. On the one hand, Islamkhan stands for the proposition that an order granting divorce but reserving the issue of attorney fees is not final. On the other, O'Leary teaches that a post judgement motion for fees does not toll the time for appeal, and the failure to timely take an appeal is a jurisdictional bar. Since it appears from the Court of Appeals' order that the trial court did not expressly reserve the issue, the cert grant may signal the court's desire to clarify whether a divorce order which does not mention fees is subject to the same rule. 

The case will be added to the January 2020 oral argument calendar.  

Denied

S18C1645. JONES v. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (A18A0096)
S19C0486. NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL, INC. et al. v. SMITH (A15A2303, A15A2304)
S19C0624. KENNEDY v. THE SHAVE BARBER COMPANY, LLC (A18A1660)
S19C0631. GUERRERO-RICO v. THE STATE (A19A0721)
S19C0638. THE GOLDEN PATCH, LLC v. 2285 PEACHTREE, LLC (A19D0205)
S19C0677. MCKENZIE v. ABM AVIATION, INC. (A18A1505)
S19C0678. GRIFFIN v. HUMANA EMPLOYERS HEALTH PLAN OF GEORGIA, INC. (A18A1993)
S19C0711. HARRIS v. THE STATE (A19A0981)
S19C0712. ROUNDTREE v. THE STATE (A18A1578)
S19C0743. BRADLEY v. COX (A19A1100)