Court Opinion

ID: 9540118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:12:57.398577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:37.882844
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
On motion for rehearing Aetna contends that we have overlooked our decision in Lankford v. Karkotsky, 171 Ga. App. 283 (319 SE2d 117), and that that decision is inconsistent with our holding in the case sub judice. In the first sentence of the second paragraph in Lankford we state that “[t]he trial court has the authority to dismiss a suit with prejudice for failure to prosecute. OCGA § 9-11-41 (b). See Krasner v. Verner Auto Supply, 130 Ga. App. 892, 894 (204 SE2d 770) (1974).” This incorrect statement upon which Aetna relies was clearly dicta. In Lankford appellants initially did not rely upon the 1982 amendment to OCGA § 9-11-41 (b). Thereafter, via new counsel, appellants filed an additional enumeration of error and brief in which they questioned the dismissal with prejudice in light of the 1982 amendment. The additional enumeration was filed after the time permitted under the Appellate Practice Act for filing an enumeration of errors. We declined to consider the appellant’s belated attempt to assert the provisions of the 1982 amendment to OCGA § 9-11-41 (b). Accordingly, the aforementioned first sentence of the second paragraph of the Lankford decision was entirely dicta unnecessary to the decision in Lankford and not binding upon us in the case sub judice.

Motion for rehearing denied.