Court Opinion

ID: 9566937
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:45:04.79965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:41:37.301527
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Divisions 2 and 3 but not in Division 1. As to it, *388I concur in refusing to reverse the trial court’s decision not to dismiss the appeal. It is a matter of discretion, Corbin v. First Nat. Bank, 151 Ga. App. 33, 34 (1) (258 SE2d 697) (1979), and the judge did not commit an error of law in choosing to permit the appeal to proceed. Nor would she have legally erred if she had dismissed the appeal, for in the stated opinions of both the trial court and this court, appellant’s delay was unreasonable and inexcusable. In fact, she found it to be “clearly” so, and further, “that this is precisely the type of case that the dismissal statute was intended to reach.” However, she recognized that local practice requires approval of the affidavit of indigency before the clerk will proceed to prepare the record for appeal and transmit it without the payment of costs; she impliedly did not fault appellant for not obtaining such approval. The affidavit, and the appeal, just languished despite appellee’s motion to dismiss it almost five months after the notice of appeal had been filed and nearly a month after the affidavits were filed. Over ten months went by before there was a hearing on appellee’s motion to dismiss the appeal, and this was eleven months after appellants had filed their affidavits of indigency and motion to extend the time and to stay the appeals.
OCGA § 5-6-48 (c) provides that “the trial court may order the appeal dismissed where there has been an unreasonable delay in the transmission of the record to the appellate court, and it is seen that the delay was inexcusable and was caused by the failure of a party to pay costs in the trial court or file an affidavit of indigence. ...” Although the court initially made the requisite findings for dismissal, the court at the same time excused appellant from inquiring into local practice and assuring that the affidavits were effective. So, in the end, the court held that the delay was not inexcusable to the extent that dismissal was warranted. The court accepted the fact that the delay was caused not by appellants’ failure to file the affidavits of indigency but in their failure to obtain the court’s sanction of them. As in Hammontree v. Hammontree, 186 Ga. App. 819, 820 (368 SE2d 576) (1988), the explanation was adequate.
On appeal, I conclude that this was not an abuse of discretion, particularly since it is appellants who stand to lose from a delayed appeal. They are seeking money damages, so delay is detrimental to them because it prevents their reaching their goal, with all the attendant problems of witness memory loss, difficulties of record-gathering, and the like. Appellee is not harmed, other than to have the nuisance of an unresolved case.
I. do not join in the application of OCGA § 5-6-30 to this issue, for such would always overshadow appellants’ lagging and emasculate the timeliness requirements of OCGA § 5-6-48. We are not “constrained” to do so. Instead, we are constrained to enforce the dictates of OCGA § 5-6-48, which is carefully constructed to assure the *389“speedy” closure of cases by moving appeals along at a steady and reasonable pace with due consideration to the work involved in doing so. The statute makes allowances for forces beyond the control of the appellant and gives the trial judge flexibility to make exceptions. But this flexibility is circumscribed by the twin requisite curbs of reasonable time and excusable cause.
Decided July 12, 1993.
Smolar, Roseman, Brantley & Seifter, Barry L. Roseman, for appellants.
Alston & Bird, Robert D. McCallum, Jr., James C. Grant, Scott A. McLaren, Bernard Taylor, for appellee.
Delay in these two appeals was exacerbated by the clerk’s delay. Her certificate in each appeal makes the not uncommon statement: “The delay in this record being transmitted to the Court of Appeals is due to a heavy back log in the Appeals Section.” She was unable to meet the time requirements of OCGA § 5-6-43, reflecting a flaw in the court system itself which could be rectified by adequate resources and a streamlined appellate process which utilizes current technology or at least eliminates duplication. See Rewis v. Shaw, 208 Ga. App. 876 (432 SE2d 617) (1993).