Court Opinion

ID: 9581588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:16:30.222013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:06.217278
License: Public Domain

Hall, Presiding Judge,
dissenting. 1. This case is controlled by Code § 81-1009 which limits the right to a mistrial only where "the plaintiff’s attorney is the offender.” See Georgia Practice and Procedure (3d Ed.), 201, § 17-6. Presumably this statutory restriction is based upon the premise that a plaintiff can always voluntarily dismiss his case. My personal predilection is like that of those in the majority who vote to reverse the judgment, i. e., that the right of mistrial should apply regardless of whether the offender is counsel for the plaintiff or the defendant. However, when the legislature has spoken by a statute, not declared to be unconstitutional, "the law on this question is not simply what the judges of this Court think the law should be, but what the General *460Assembly has said it is.” Horton v. Brown, 117 Ga. App. 47, 49 (159 SE2d 489). Therefore the plaintiffs enumeration of error No. 2, that the court abused its discretion in denying plaintiff’s motion for mistrial is without merit.
2. There is another reason why this case should be affirmed. It also relates to a construction of Code § 81-1009 (the question of rebuke). The majority opinion is in direct conflict with recent decisions of the Supreme Court, to wit: Spell v. State, 225 Ga. 705 (171 SE2d 285) (a murder case); McCluskey v. American Oil Co., 225 Ga. 63 (165 SE2d 830); Miller v. State, 224 Ga. 627 (163 SE2d 730).
The majority opinion holds that the above Code Section requires an express rebuke of counsel in front of the jury in addition to proper instructions to the jury to disregard the improper remarks. The Supreme Court, in a capital felony case, has held that instructions by the court to the jury to disregard the remarks "in effect amounted to a rebuke of counsel.” Spell, supra, p. 709. Do we follow the Supreme Court or do we ignore their decisions and go our merry way? The trial courts are left in a dilemma, and the law is left in a state of confusion.
I am authorized to state the Presiding Judge Eberhardt and Judge Stolz concur in this dissent.