Court Opinion

ID: 9856237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:42:12.297533+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:33:53.360338
License: Public Domain

CARLEY, Justice,
concurring.
I agree fully with the majority opinion, but write separately to emphasize that neither party can ever enforce the provisions of the purported arbitration award. As the majority holds in Division 1, a final judgment cannot incorporate such a non-existent and unenforceable award. Indeed, there is not “any authority for the proposition that the principle of incorporation by reference can apply prospectively to a document which has yet to be filed or made a public record because it is non-existent.” McKee v. City of Geneva, 280 Ga. 411, 412-413 (1) (627 SE2d 555) (2006). Moreover, “the principle of incorporation by reference applies only ‘(i)n the absence of statutory or charter provision to the contrary . . . .’ [Cit.]” McKee v. City of Geneva, supra at 413 (1). In construing the Georgia Arbitration Code, the majority correctly states in Division 2 that the subsequent “purported arbitration award was of no effect.” (Maj. op., p. 603.) Thus, the parties to this case are statutorily precluded from any future reliance on the provisions of the purported arbitration award through the principle of incorporation by reference. See McKee v. City of Geneva, supra at 413-414 (1).
If either party desired that the trial court include the substance of the purported arbitration award in whole or in part, or otherwise “wished relief from the effect of the trial court’s final judgment, it was incumbent upon him or her to challenge that order.” (Maj. op., p. 604.) Although most such challenges would be untimely at this point, a motion to set aside under OCGA § 9-11-60 may still be appropriate if it is brought within the applicable time limitations and is properly based upon one of the grounds set forth in subsection (d) of that code section.
*605Hunter, Weinstein & Somerstein, Evin L. Somerstein, Elizabeth M. Jaffe, for appellant.
Alembik, Fine & Callner, Joseph M. Winter, for appellee.