Court of Appeals

of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A21E0004. D. RICHARD WELLS et al. v. SUSAN WELLS-WILSON.

D. Richard Wells and First Nolia Enterprises, Inc. (“Appellants”) have filed a

“Emergency Motion to Stay Pending Appeal” pursuant to this Court’s Rule 40 (b).

Court of Appeals Rule 40 (b) vests this Court with the inherent authority to issue

emergency orders “as may be necessary to preserve jurisdiction of an appeal or to

prevent the contested issue from becoming moot. This power shall be exercised

sparingly.”

This appeal arises from an order ruling on Appellee Susan Wilson-Wells’

motion to confirm an arbitration award and Appellants’ motion to vacate the same

arbitration award. The trial court granted the motion to vacate, and identified three

specific issuesthat would be re-considered on remand to the arbitrator. However, the

trial court did not remand the case for re-consideration of the issues raised by

Appellants. See SCSJ Enterprises v. Hansen & Hansen Enterprises, 306 Ga. App.

188, 189 (702 SE2d 12) (2010) (Georgia law requires that, “if a trial court vacates an

arbitration award, it may do so only in its entirety[,] but also that “a rehearing may be

limited to the specific issues necessitating the vacatur[, and] that the vacatur of the

entire arbitration award will not render the prior proceedings a nullity”) (citations

omitted). Appellant Wells filed a notice of appeal from this order on July 29, 2020

and Appellant First Nolia filed a notice of appeal on July 31, 2020.

Appellants now argue that the American Arbitration Association’s (“AAA”)

expressed intent to move forward with arbitration on the scheduled date of August 7,

2020, violates OCGA § 9-11-62 ten-day limited stay and the mandatory supersedeas

granted by OCGA § 5-6-46 because it would force Appellants to arbitrate during the

August 03, 2020
pendency of their appeal and would render their appeals moot.

We note that correspondence fromthe AAA to partiesindicatesthat it intended

to observe the 10-day stay mandated by OCGA § 9-11-62 (a), but that it would “take

any necessary administrative steps during that time period in order to be ready to

proceed once that stay is concluded[,] . . . [and] that the AAA intends to proceed

without administration of this matter once the initial 10 day stay as expired.

However, OCGA § 5-6-46 provides that “in civil cases, the notice of appeal

filed a provided in [OCGA §] 5-6-37 and 5-6-38 shall serve as supersedeas upon

payment of all costs in the trial court by the appellant[.]” “[S]upersedeas is presumed

to attach in civil cases as soon as a notice of appeal is filed. This deprives the trial

court of the authority to act on the judgment on appeal.” (Citation and punctuation

omitted.) Jones v. Peach Trader, Inc., 302 Ga. 504, 507 (II) (807 SE2d 840) (2017).

Further, an order vacating an arbitration award and remanding it for further

proceedings constitutes a final judgment for purposes of our appellate review. See

OCGA § 9-9-13 (e); King v. King, 354 Ga. App. 19 (840 SE2d 108) (2020) (“the

court’s judgment is deemed final for appeal purposes, even though it is undisputed

the case must be returned to the arbitrator for rehearing”) (citation omitted).

Accordingly, we conclude that Appellant’s filing of their notices of appeal have

divested the AAA of jurisdiction to proceed with the scheduled arbitration on August

7, 2020. If the arbitration were allowed to proceed before Appellants’ appeals were

heard, the issues would become moot and this Court would be unable to rule upon

them. See 12052 Associations v. W. C. Carson, Inc., 202 Ga. App. 731 (415 SE2d

298) (1992). Accordingly, to prevent the contested issuesin this case from becoming

moot, we GRANT Appellant’s motion to stay the arbitration proceedings pending his

appeal. 
Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________

I certify that the above is a true extract from

the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Witness my signature and the seal of said court

hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.

08/03/2020