Court Opinion

ID: 9569400
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:13:32.920549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:56:51.280921
License: Public Domain

*409Carley, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent to the majority’s reversal of the judgment of the trial court because I do not believe that the trial court abused its discretion in ordering appellants to post a surety bond, as provided by OCGA § 50-15-2. An affirmance of the judgment requiring the bond would result in a dismissal of the appeal since appellants did not post the bond set by the trial court. Therefore, I will not address the merits of the appeal which has been dismissed by operation of law.
Under the majority’s analysis, the Public Lawsuits Act (PLA) prohibits the trial court from requiring a surety bond unless the litigation is clearly frivolous or non-meritorious. Even if this construction of OCGA § 50-15-2 would be reasonable at the outset of the lawsuit, it should not apply where the trial court has rendered its decision on the merits of the underlying litigation. If there is an appeal of the trial court’s final judgment in favor of the political subdivision and the political subdivision so moves, the trial court must then determine whether it is “in the public interest” to require a supersedeas bond during the appeal. Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, I do not believe that a trial court abuses its discretion in granting an appeal bond under the PLA simply because some of the claims asserted appear meritorious. Once a trial court has ruled on the merits of the case, it is anomalous to prohibit the trial court from requiring an appeal bond because an appellate court may later rule differently. The statute provides that if, after hearing, the trial court determines that the posting of a supersedeas bond “is in the public interest,” it “shall set the amount of the bond ... to cover all damage and costs which may accrue to the political subdivision by reason of the . . . intervention in the event the political subdivision prevails.” (Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 50-15-2.
In this case, the trial court has already examined and rejected the claims of appellants. Therefore, the trial court must have considered the claims to lack merit. The fact that an appellate court may later find merit where the trial court has found none does not mean that the trial court abused its discretion in requiring an appeal bond. I believe that the majority today effectively holds that a trial court always abuses its discretion when it requires an appeal bond in a public lawsuit which is not clearly frivolous. Thus, in the absence of further legislation, the appellate courts of Georgia will hereafter be required to second-guess each and every order of a trial court requiring an unsuccessful litigant to post an appeal bond pursuant to OCGA § 50-15-2. Because I believe that such an approach is an unreasonable interpretation of the statute, I dissent to the reversal of the trial court’s order requiring appellants to post a surety bond during the pendency of the appeal.
*410Decided July 8, 1999
Reconsideration denied July 30, 1999.
Mullins & Whalen, Andrew J. Whalen III, Jacob A. Maurer, for appellants.
James R. Osborne, District Attorney, Tallapoosa Circuit, Jack F. Witcher, Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White & Williams, Richard N. Hubert, Daniel M. McRae, Griffith F. Pitcher, for appellees.