Court Opinion

ID: 9623119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:28:05.127383+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:24.543126
License: Public Domain

Pannell, Judge,
dissenting. I must dissent from the refusal of the majority to dismiss the appeal which refusal the majority based upon the authority of Section 3 of the Act of 1968 (Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1072, 1074) as applied by a majority of this court in Brackett v. Allison, 119 Ga. App. 632 (168 SE2d 611). The Act merely says that when it is apparent from the notice of appeal, the record and enumerations of error, or any combination, which judgment or judgments were appealed from, this court will consider and pass upon the appeal (providing, of course, the judgment apparently appealed from is an appealable one). The only things apparent from the notice of appeal, the record and the enumerations of error in this case is that the appeal should have been entered “from the judgment on the verdict dated March 5, 1969, and entered March 5, 1969,” and it is also apparent that this was not done.
If we look to the record, we find the judgment on the verdict which I have described, but none of the elements of this description are included in the description of the judgment appealed from in the notice of appeal. There is in the record a judgment of February 25, 1969, limiting the issues which were submitted to the jury. Error is enumerated on this judgment. Does not this judgment fit more closely the appellant’s description? There is also in the record a verdict of February 28, 1969. There are three enumerations of error on the verdict. Does not this more closely fit the description given by the appellant? Does the fact that neither this judgment nor the verdict will support an appeal and the fact that the judgment of March 5, 1969, is appealable, make it apparent that the latter is the judgment appealed from? If that is what turns the trick, then a majority are in the right church, but the wrong pew, as they are applying the law to the wrong facts. For the facts here do not make the judgment actually appealed from apparent but only make apparent the judgment which should have been appealed from. The Act of 1968 contains no language which will support this construction placed upon it *268by the majority. While I dissented from the case relied upon by the majority, Brackett v. Allison, 119 Ga. App. 632, supra, that case itself expressly excluded from its operation and distinguished therefrom cases such as the present one. In the present case, there is nothing in the description of the judgment appealed from which ties it in with the judgment of March 5, 1969. Let us read from what was the special concurrence of Judge Deen, which was ultimately incorporated by express quotation into the majority opinion in that case. “If our only clue is the date, it may be that examination of the record will not be sufficient to make the judgment appealed from apparent. But this is not the only clue. The appeal is from the ‘judgment and decree.’ A glance at the orders indicates that only one is called a ‘judgment and decree’ and only one could possibly be termed a judgment and decree.” P. 633. It is apparent from the description of the judgment here, which is described only by date, the present case fits the exception acknowledged by the majority in the Brackett v. Allison case.
The appeal should be dismissed.