Court Opinion

ID: 9616477
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:47:11.865511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:58.453051
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I, too, concur in Divisions 1, 2, and 3 of the majority opinion. I do not concur in the decision to impose a penalty. This court adopted a rule, Rule 26 (b), stating that it may impose a penalty not to exceed $500 in civil cases “which the Court determines to be frivolous.” This rule is almost identical to Rule 14 of the Supreme Court of Georgia, which preceded it, except that the Supreme Court may assess the appellant’s counsel or appellant, whereas this court chose only to allow assessment against appellant.
The question is whether the appeal is so frivolous that the appellant should be penalized monetarily for having brought it, and not merely be left with having lost the appeal. Frivolous in whose eyes? The Court’s, as stated in the rule. This test, and the perspective somewhat, differ from OCGA § 5-6-6, by which the legislature provided that the court could impose a penalty of 10 percent of the judgment, in money judgment cases, when in the court’s opinion the appeal “was taken up for delay only.” In cases being considered under this statute, the appellant’s purpose for filing an appeal is the test, as measured by the Court’s perspective.
The fact that three other judges of this court consider the appeal not to be frivolous such as to warrant a monetary penalty for bringing it, moves this case away from those where the settled law makes the outcome obvious. Here the plaintiff questions the dismissal of his lawsuit with prejudice as a sanction for refusing to appear for a deposition, the posture on appeal being whether the trial court abused its discretion. Considering the nature of this appeal, plus the facts heretofore mentioned, as well as all of the circumstances, I would not impose what amounts to an additional penalty on appellant.
I am authorized to state that Judge Pope joins in this opinion.
*329Decided October 10, 1989
Rehearing denied October 30, 1989
Taj Jarallah, pro se.
Stokes, Lazarus & Carmichael, Frederick L. Warren III, Michael A. Young, for appellees.