Court Opinion

ID: 9849533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:42:10.767181+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:17.456484
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
On March 2, 1977, Barbara Schaffer, d/b/a Love Machine, had her business closed after a judgment of nuisance and abatement was issued against her by the Municipal Court of the City of Atlanta, Georgia. A petition for certiorari was brought to the Superior Court of Fulton County. The municipal court failed to respond to said writ of certiorari within the time provided by law, and the writ was dismissed. That judgment was affirmed by this court in Schaffer v. City of Atlanta, 144 Ga. App. 702 (242 SE2d 288).
Contending that there had been no ruling on the merits by reason of the failure of the Municipal Court to respond to the writ, a second petition for certiorari was brought raising the same attacks as were made in the original petition. The writ was sanctioned by the superior court.
Whereupon, a motion to dismiss the renewed second application for writ of certiorari was filed, heard and granted, the court concluding as a matter of law that the dismissal constituted a ruling on the merits after this court had affirmed the dismissal and the Supreme Court of Georgia had thereafter denied an application for a writ of certiorari.
On appeal of the superior court’s decision to this court the majority holds that since there was no ruling on the merits of the applicant’s certiorari, same having been dismissed for the failure of the municipal court to respond, the plaintiff was authorized to renew her application within six months under Code § 3-808 where the original action was not barred by the statute of limitations, citing Code § 3-808 and Covil v. Stansell, 113 Ga. App. 179 (3) (147 SE2d 479), and the cases of Turner v. State, 85 Ga. App. 609 (70 SE2d 45) and Jameson v. State, 50 Ga. App. *5111 (176 SE 903). The majority ruling is that the second application was timely filed, and the superior court erred in dismissing it on the erroneous ground that the merits of the appeal had previously been decided. The majority reverses the judgment. To this I cannot agree.
The plaintiff-applicant has had her day in court and appealed same all the way to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The basis of the action in the municipal court was the abatement of a nuisance, and the business has been ordered closed. In my opinion, the majority has misconstrued the-decisions cited with reference to the binding effect of the decision after the appeal procedure has been exhausted. The case of Jameson v. State, 50 Ga. App. 111, supra, rather than supporting the majority, is an affirmance of the dismissal by the superior court. That decision cites Sheehan v. City Council of Augusta, 8 Ga. App. 539 (69 SE 916), which is also authority to affirm the superior court here. The Sheehan case states that there are some dismissals as to which a certiorari may be renewed but that generally, "the certiorari is not renewable.” It is my opinion that the decision here is not one which would authorize a renewal. The case of Turner v. State, 85 Ga. App. 609, supra, is also authority for the affirmance of the superior court in the case sub judice. The Turner case states that the plaintiff in certiorari has a duty to discover that no answer has been filed by the magistrate and that if same is not filed it is the duty of the plaintiff in certiorari to obtain an order requiring such answer to be filed within some specified time citing a number of cases in support of its ruling. It therein states that if no answer is filed the whole procedure is void.
However, Judge Townsend in a special concurrence cites two cases which he contends would authorize a renewal for the petition of certiorari within six months after dismissal. The case of Georgia R. &c. Co. v. J. M. High, Co., 15 Ga. App. 243 (2,3) (82 SE 932), shows that decision to be based upon the establishment of the law of that case and further that the subject matter of that proceeding was garnishment of wages of a laborer who contended that his wages were exempt from garnishment. Garnishment of wages is an on-going proceeding which in itself can be renewed as to additional wages becoming due *6and payable in the event the attachment is not satisfied by the garnishment funds paid into court. The garnishment of wages was also void.
Here the law of the case has affirmed the judgment ordering the closing of the business, and plaintiff-applicant is bound by that decision.
The case of Allen v. McGuire, 49 Ga. App. 60 (174 SE 147), does not support the special concurrence in Turner v. State, 85 Ga. App. 609, supra, but merely announced that the plaintiff in certiorari has the right to renew his petition in certiorari within six months after dismissal.
The majority has also overlooked our new civil practice, and in particular Code Ann. § 81A-181 (Ga. L. 1966, pp. 609, 668; 1967, pp. 226, 241; 1968, pp. 1104, 1109) and Code Ann. § 81A-141 (Ga. L. 1966, pp. 609,653) which I feel require a decision contra.
Code Ann. § 81A-181 provides that: "This Title [the Civil Practice Act] shall apply to all special statutory proceedings except to the extent that specific rules of practice and procedure in conflict herewith are expressly prescribed by law...” I find no provision of Code Title 19, as amended, dealing with certiorari which expressly prescribed any rule in conflict with Code Ann. § 81A-141 (b), supra. The involuntary dismissal of the first writ of certiorari was not for lack of jurisdiction, improper venue or lack of an indispensable party, therefore the dismissal operates as an adjudication upon the merits. A petition for certiorari is a "case” within the meaning of our civil practice. See Georgia R. &c. Co. v. J. M. High Co., 15 Ga. App. 243 (1), supra.
Applying the principle of res judicata I would hold that the superior court did not err in dismissing the second writ of certiorari.
I therefore respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Quillian, Judge Smith and Judge Banke, join in this dissent.