Court Opinion

ID: 9561113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:03:37.312569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:37.791005
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Judge,
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment and concur in the conclusion reached in Division 1 of the opinion, that the motion to dismiss the appeal is without merit, but solely on the grounds (1) that the failure to specify in the notice of appeal whether the transcript was to be transmitted is not jurisdictional, and (2) the transcript of the proceedings was filed in the lower court within the time required by law and the failure of the clerk to transmit the record and transcript to this *713court within the time required was not occasioned by the fault of the appellant to so specify the transcript in the notice of appeal or otherwise, the clerk’s certificate showing the delay was occasioned solely by the press of business in his office.
I do not concur in the following rulings in Division 1 of the opinion: (a) That Section 13 (b) of the Appellate Practice Act of 1965 (Ga. L. 1965, pp. 18, 29) as amended by Section 10 of the Act of 1966 (Ga. L. 1966, pp. 493, 500; Code Ann. § 6-809) providing that no appeal shall be dismissed except for the reasons therein given is controlling on this court. It is my opinion that the legislature has no right to determine the grounds for dismissal of an appeal from this court where the cause for dismissal pertains to jurisdictional matters which the legislature itself has provided. That this concept is correct is exemplified by the rulings of both this court and the Supreme Court dismissing appeals because of the late filing of the transcript resulting in a late transmission of an appeal to this court, and dismissing appeals because of a late filing of enumerations of error, neither of which are grounds for dismissal provided by statute.
That a notice of appeal can be amended because there is no statute prohibiting such amendment. A notice of appeal is not a pleading within the meaning of our statutes allowing freedom of amendment as to pleadings, and the mere fact that no statute prohibits an amendment to a notice of appeal does not ipso facto permit such an amendment. If this be a valid rule there would be no necessity for numerous Code provisions, such as §§ 3-115; 6-303; 81-210; 81-402; 81-1201 through 81-1207; 81-1301 through 81-1313; 24-104; 24-2815, 24-2816; 39-1005; 67-2216; 70-302; 70-309; and others. The provisions permitting an amendment to a bill of exceptions (Code §§ 6-1401, 6-1309) were repealed by the Appellate Practice Act of 1965. If an amendment to a notice of appeal is permissible, it is only permissible under the language of Section 13 of the Appellate Practice Act of 1965, as amended, which in part, Paragraph (b), states “[a]t any stage of the proceedings, either before or after argument, the court shall by order, either with or without motion, provide for all necessary amendment, require the trial *714court to make corrections in the record or transcript or certify what transpired below which does not appear from the record on appeal, require that additional portions of the record or transcript of proceedings be sent up, or require that a complete transcript of evidence and proceedings be prepared and sent up, or take any other action to perfect the appeal and record so that the appellate court can and will pass upon the appeal and not dismiss it.” The attempted amendment here was not a necessary amendment to perfect the appeal so as to prevent its dismissal. Whether or not the amendment be allowed, the appeal is not subject to dismissal, so it is not necessary to determine this question relating to amendments.
That where a delay in transmitting the appeal and transcript to this court is caused by the appellant such delay is not cause for dismissal, if the case can be docketed and heard at the same call at which it would have been heard had it been filed on the last day of the time required for its transmittal. I realize that this court in a division opinion has so held (Hornsby v. Rodriguez, 116 Ga. App. 234 (156 SE2d 830)); however, I am not in agreement with that opinion for the reason that the question is whether or not there was a late filing rather than a late hearing and further that the case of Fort Oglethorpe v. Catoosa County, 80 Ga. App. 188, 192 (55 SE2d 753) does not support the ruling made in the Hornsby case. In the Fort Oglethorpe case it did not appear that the delay was caused by the appellant, and one of the grounds for the motion to dismiss was that the certificate of the trial judge required the clerk to send the-record in time for the “current term” rather than a later named term. As to this, the court merely held that the Constitution and statutes and rules of court involved controlled the term at which the case was returnable rather than the language in the judge’s order, and that the case, because of the time of docketing, was actually returnable to the proper term. No question was decided in that case as was decided in the Hornsby case. Further, it is not necessary to reiterate the doubtful ruling in the Hornsby case to decide the present case.