Court Opinion

ID: 9584280
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:46:16.879369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:23.410019
License: Public Domain

Eberhardt, Judge,
concurring. We think the majority view is correct, particularly since this type of action is not favored by the courts. "This action is strictly guarded, and the circumstances under which it may be maintained are accurately stated; it is never encouraged, except in plain cases; were it otherwise, ill consequences would ensue to the public, for no one would willingly undertake to vindicate a breach of the public law and to discharge his duty to society, with the prospect of an annoying suit staring him in the face.” Ventress v. Rosser, 73 Ga. 534, 541. Accord: Henderson v. Francis, 75 Ga. 178, 181; Joiner v. Ocean Steamship Co., 86 Ga. 238, 245 (12 SE 361). "The action is not favored by the law, and especially is this true where the suit is based upon a criminal proceeding against the plaintiff; for public policy favors the exposure of crime, which a recovery against a prosecutor obviously tends to discourage.” South Ga. Grocery Co. v. Banks, 52 Ga. App. 1, 8 (182 SE 61).
With this policy firmly settled in the law there should be no construction of the law or the facts to give rise to an *585action unless it is clearly and plainly demanded. Consequently, the construction by Judge Pannell of Code § 24-2714 (7), which provides for a "dead docket” for criminal cases, the transfer of cases thereto and that when this has been done the case "shall only be called at [the judge’s] pleasure,” is in keeping and is correct. Certainly if, as the Code section provides, the judge may call the case for trial at his pleasure it cannot be said that it is at an end. The case is viable — alive, though on the dead docket! Nor, under the fixed policy relative to these cases, can we infer an abandonment from a transfer of a case to the dead docket; if there is an inference it must be otherwise.
It should be noted that this conclusion does not deprive the plaintiff of a remedy. He may obtain a termination of the case by filing a demand for trial, after which he must be tried or the prosecution discharged. Code § 27-1901. If he had objected to placing the case on the dead docket it would have been an abuse of discretion and a deprivation of his constitutional rights to do so (Newman v. State, 121 Ga. App. 692, supra), for he could not he denied a speedy trial.
Our judgment, being but a determination of prematurity, will not become res judicata as to the merits.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Hall and Judge Clark join in this concurrence.