Court Opinion

ID: 9583596
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:40:19.420965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:07.395643
License: Public Domain

Hill, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I join the majority opinion reluctantly. I do so because OCGA § 9-11-41 (d) (Code Ann. § 81A-141) provides: “If a plaintiff who has dismissed an action in any court commences an action based upon or including the same claim against the same defendant, the plaintiff shall first pay the court costs of the action previously dismissed.” (Emphasis supplied.)
I write because in my view OCGA § 9-2-61 (a) (Code Ann. § *8563-808), on which the plaintiffs relied, is a trap for the unwary. It provides in pertinent part: “If a plaintiff discontinues or dismisses his case and recommences the same within six months, the renewed case shall stand upon the same footing, as to limitation, with the original case.” This Code section makes no mention of paying costs. In the Code of 1982, there is no cross-reference under OCGA § 9-2-61 (Code Ann. § 3-808), which gives the right to refile, to OCGA § 9-11-41 (Code Ann. § 81A-141), which requires the payment of costs.
I hope that the General Assembly will remedy this situation, possibly by amending that sentence in OCGA § 9-2-61 (a) (Code Ann. § 3-808) quoted above so as to add the words “upon prepayment of costs in the original case as required by OCGA § 9-11-41 (d).”