Court Opinion

ID: 9584069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:44:24.397517+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:36.326722
License: Public Domain

*410Been, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
Where an act is required by statute to be done in open court, such act if done otherwise is illegal and void. Zugar v. State, 194 Ga. 285 (21 SE2d 647) (1942); Wilson v. State, 215 Ga. 446 (1) (111 SE2d 32) (1959); Blevins v. State, 220 Ga. 720 (4) (141 SE2d 426) (1965).
Here the statute requires that a nolle prosequi be entered in open court. Code § 27-1801. This entry, made by rubber stamp and not in fact signed by the judge and not made in open court, is accordingly void. Blanchard v. Taylor, 136 Ga. App. 237, 238 (220 SE2d 757) (1975). A motion was in fact made by the bank to “further answer the request for admissions” which was, under the circumstances, formal rather than a substantive procedure since the bank had in both pleadings and discovery interrogatories already stated that the so-called nolle prosequi was illegally entered. The bank did in fact amend its answer to this interrogatory and (for the third time!) set out these facts. The court with all this before him thereafter sustained the motion for summary judgment.
In my opinion, the trial court did not abuse his discretion in (as he obviously did) considering the amendment as a sufficient compliance with the procedural statutes, and thereafter granting the motion for summary judgment. The majority opinion would reverse because it finds no order in the record specifically granting the motion to amend. I am inclined to feel that this is putting form before substance and would affirm.