Court Opinion

ID: 9625333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:36:51.94258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:06.514192
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
In its opinion the majority states, "If the parties so elect, and the court so directs, a motion for summary judgment may be heard on oral testimony.” The majority further quotes with approval Price v. Star Service & Petroleum Corp., 119 Ga. App. 171, 179 (166 SE2d 593): "While there may be circumstances in which the court may, in its discretion, permit the use of oral evidence at a *455hearing on the motion, as for example, when both parties agree, there is no requirement of the statute that it do so.” (Emphasis supplied.)
In the present case there is no transcript of the hearing on the motion; further, there is no stipulation of the case in the record showing how the questions arose and were decided by the trial court. See Ga. L. 1965, pp. 18, 26 (Code Ann. § 6-805 (g)(i)). In the absence of a transcript or a stipulation as to what transpired at the hearing, this court is unable to determine if there was an agreement by both parties to allow the matter to be heard on oral testimony. The majority opinion states that there was no agreement to hear this case on oral testimony nor an order of the trial judge notifying the parties under Code Ann. § 81A-143 that this matter would be heard on oral testimony. However, there is nothing in the record to indicate whether there was in fact such an agreement at the hearing on the motion. Further, even if notification is required for the use of oral testimony, the absence of such notification could have been waived by the parties at the hearings.
"The general rule is that' . . . one is limited in his appeal to grounds of objection which he properly presented to the trial court; he cannot make them for the first time on appeal.’ [Cits.]” Federal Ins. Co. v. Oakwood Steel Co. 126 Ga. App. 479, 480 (191 SE2d 298). In the absence of a transcript of the hearing, we are unable to determine if the issues, raised for our consideration on appeal, were raised, or even waived, at the trial level. It is the law in Georgia that "the burden is upon the party asserting error on appeal to show such error by the record ... Since the proof necessary for determination of the issues of this case are not lawfully before this court, we will [should] assume that the judgment is correct and affirm it.” Brooks v. Home Credit Co., Inc., 128 Ga. App. 176 (196 SE2d 176).
I am authorized to state that Judges Quillian, Clark and Marshall concur in this dissent.