Court Opinion

ID: 9581441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:15:00.54681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:57.215385
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge,
dissenting.
While I fully concur in the dismissal of the appeal in Case No. 73176,1 find the trial court’s action upon which the majority bases its reversal in Case No. 73175 to be harmless error under the circumstances of this case.
*747Appellant never registered any opposition to appellee’s motion for summary judgment. While appellant had been served with a copy of the motion and was aware that a hearing had been requested, she failed to file a response to appellee’s motion for summary judgment within 30 days as required by Rule 6.2 of the Uniform Rules for Superior Courts. Appellant now asks this court to find that Rule 6.2 is inconsistent with the following pertinent language of OCGA § 9-11-56 (c): “The motion shall be served at least 30 days before the time fixed for the hearing. The adverse party prior to the day of hearing may serve opposing affidavits.” It is appellant’s contention and the majority’s position that OCGA § 9-11-56 (c) allows an opposing party to respond to a motion up to the day before the hearing and that, since appellant had no notice of the hearing, she was prevented from filing a response. I disagree with her interpretation of the statute and with the conclusion based thereon.
OCGA § 9-11-56 (c) allows for the filing of affidavits up to the day before the hearing. The Civil Practice Act does not contain a deadline for the submission of a response to a motion for summary judgment. Rule 6.2 fills that void by mandating that “unless otherwise ordered by the judge, each party opposing a motion shall serve and file a response . . . not later than 30 days after service of the motion.” Therefore, appellant was required to file a response to appellee’s motion within 30 days unless the trial judge ordered otherwise. If appellant had wished to file affidavits in opposition to appellee’s motion, she would have had the opportunity to serve those affidavits upon appellee until the day before the oral hearing. OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). Lack of service of notice of the date of the oral hearing, however, in no way affected appellant’s duty under Rule 6.2 to respond to appellee’s motion not later than 30 days after its service. I emphatically note, however, that failure to respond to a motion in compliance with Rule 6.2 is not a consent to judgment or an acknowledgement that the movant has borne the burden of showing “that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). The trial court must still make that finding from the evidence of record.
The record in this case supports such a finding and appellant failed, both on the initial consideration of the motion and on consideration of her motion to set aside the judgment, to proffer any material which would have required a different result. Therefore, the error in conducting the hearing on appellee’s motion for summary judgment without service on appellant of notice of the date of the hearing was harmless, the entry of summary judgment for appellee is fully supported by the record, and the trial court’s ruling should be affirmed.
*748Decided April 3, 1987
Rehearing denied April 30, 1987
Charles M. Leverett, for appellant.
Philip C. Henry, Robert D. Ingram, James M. Poe, Michael G. Frick, Jennie E. Rogers, Alan Nicholson, Elaine Whitehurst, for appellee.
I respectfully dissent from its reversal.