Court Filings

The Court of Appeals dismissed Progressive Mountain Insurance Company’s attempt to appeal a trial court order awarding attorney fees as a discovery sanction because the order was not final. The trial court reserved the amount of fees for a later hearing, so the case remained pending below. Progressive did not seek interlocutory review under the statutory procedure (OCGA § 5-6-34(b)) by obtaining a certificate of immediate review. Because Progressive failed to follow the required interlocutory appeal steps, the Court of Appeals concluded it lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal.

The Court of Appeals dismissed a direct appeal by plaintiffs Whitney Garland and Thomas Nichols from a trial-court order awarding attorney fees to defendant Provectus Unum, LLC. The plaintiffs had voluntarily dismissed their contract lawsuit, but the trial court reopened the case because Provectus had a pending counterclaim for fees and then awarded fees under Georgia law. The Court of Appeals held it lacked jurisdiction because appeals of fee awards under OCGA § 9-15-14 must proceed by discretionary application under OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(10), and the plaintiffs did not follow that procedure.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed L. Lin Wood’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The underlying civil trial court entered a $9,661,177 judgment for the plaintiffs and granted a supersedeas bond on November 5, 2025. Wood filed a motion for reconsideration on November 12 and a notice of appeal on December 9, 2025. The Court held that the notice of appeal was untimely as to the November 5 order because it was filed 34 days later, and that the later denial of the reconsideration motion is not directly appealable and does not extend the appeal deadline.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Brittany Jackson's appeal from a judgment in favor of Bay Street Homes arising from a dispossessory action because Jackson filed her notice of appeal 21 days after the trial court's order denying her motion for new trial, instead of within the seven-day deadline that applies to dispossessory cases. The court explained that although possession became moot, the underlying action remained a dispossessory proceeding seeking past-due rent, so the special seven-day appeal window under OCGA § 44-7-56 controlled. Because timely filing of a notice of appeal is jurisdictional, the court lacked authority to hear the appeal.

The Court of Appeals reversed the superior court’s judgment that had affirmed the City of Atlanta Board of Zoning Adjustment’s denial of Beacon Media’s permit to erect a freestanding billboard. Beacon applied for a permit, the City initially denied it, then granted it, and an adjacent landowner, Jamestown, appealed to the BZA and succeeded. The appeals court held Jamestown lacked standing under Georgia’s substantial-interest-aggrieved-citizen test because it did not show any special harm unique from other similarly situated property owners. Because Jamestown lacked standing, the court reversed the superior court’s affirmance of the BZA decision.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for discretionary appeal by Xiaodong Guan from a civil action (LC No. 25CV000342) and denied the application on April 10, 2026. The order is brief and purely procedural: the court exercised its discretion and declined to grant review, so no merits decision on the underlying dispute between the named parties was made. The denial leaves the lower court's judgment or order intact and concludes this court's involvement unless the applicant pursues another available remedy.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for discretionary appeal filed by Rikayat Lawal in case number A26D0407, seeking review of a trial court matter assigned LC number 25DD000869. The court issued a short order on April 9, 2026, denying the application for discretionary appeal. No further reasoning or analysis is provided in the document; it is a ministerial denial entry from the Clerk of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

The Georgia Court of Appeals issued an order on April 9, 2026 denying an emergency motion by Westchester Place Homeowners Association and related parties. The appellants had asked for a supersedeas (stay) of injunctive relief and for the appointment of a receiver while their appeal is pending. The court refused those emergency requests, leaving the lower-court injunctive relief and the absence of a receiver in place pending further proceedings.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Jacqueline Wilbourn’s appeal from a superior-court judgment in favor of Galadriel Enterprises because the court lacked jurisdiction. Wilbourn had appealed to the superior court from a magistrate-court judgment and then appealed the superior-court judgment to this Court, but she did not use the required discretionary-appeal procedures. The Court explained that de novo reviews of magistrate rulings and appeals in damage actions where the judgment is $10,000 or less must be initiated by discretionary application, and noncompliance is jurisdictional, so the appeal was dismissed.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted the appellant's motion to withdraw the appeal in the case Jonathan Blanton v. Eric Spinks et al. The court released jurisdiction back to the trial court upon issuance of the order. No substantive ruling on the merits was made; the action simply ends the appellate proceeding and restores control of the case to the lower court.

The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and held that GEICO was entitled to judgment on the pleadings for breach of a settlement agreement. The case arose after Abdel-Rahman made a pre-suit motor vehicle tort settlement offer that included the five statutory material terms required by OCGA § 9-11-67.1 (2021) plus additional nonstatutory terms. GEICO sent a written acceptance agreeing to the material terms while rejecting the offeror’s attempt to make the statute inapplicable. The court followed prior appellate decisions holding that acceptance of the statutory material terms alone forms an enforceable settlement under OCGA § 9-11-67.1, so GEICO proved a breach and entitlement to specific performance.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal in Aslam Gilani and Peak Amusement, LLC v. Epic Amusement, LLC for failure to file the required appellate brief and enumeration of errors. The appeal was docketed March 5, 2026; appellants requested and received an extension to April 7, 2026, with a warning that failure to file by 4:30 p.m. would result in dismissal. Because the appellants did not file the brief by the extended deadline, the court dismissed the appeal pursuant to its rules and controlling precedent.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted Kiran Kimbrough's application for discretionary appeal from a decision involving the City of Atlanta. The court ordered that the appellant may file a Notice of Appeal within 10 days of the April 8, 2026 order and directed the Clerk of Superior Court to include this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals. The order formally accepts discretionary review and initiates the appellate filing deadline and record transmission procedures.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Cedric Herbert’s original mandamus petition seeking an order requiring a trial judge to refer his recusal motion to another judge. The court explained that mandamus in the appellate courts is reserved for extremely rare cases because superior courts generally have authority to grant such extraordinary relief and the petitioner should first seek relief in the appropriate lower court. Because Herbert did not show he first petitioned the superior court and this case was not one of the rare exceptions, the Court of Appeals declined to exercise original jurisdiction and dismissed the petition.

The Court of Appeals granted Ardalan Karbasyoun's application for discretionary appeal from a final judgment in favor of Foamworks Alpharetta, LLC. The court concluded the trial-court order disposed of the entire case and therefore was a final, appealable order under Georgia law. Because a right of direct appeal exists for such final judgments, the Court granted the application and instructed Karbasyoun to file a notice of appeal in the trial court within ten days. The trial-court clerk must include this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s confirmation of an arbitration award in favor of Spectrum and its award of prejudgment interest, but vacated and remanded solely to recalculate the prejudgment interest start date. Spectrum demanded payment of the fixed arbitration award by letter on December 9, 2020, and later sought confirmation when Amendia did not pay. The court held Spectrum’s demand (and its later oral request at a 2022 hearing) sufficed as a timely request for prejudgment interest under Georgia law, so interest must be awarded; however, interest should run from the expiration of the payment deadline set in the demand letter, not from the letter date itself.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Tiffany Roseman's appeal from the superior court's dismissal of her petition for review because the court lacked jurisdiction. The case began in magistrate court, Roseman sought de novo review in superior court, and after the superior court dismissed her petition she appealed directly to this Court of Appeals. The Court held that appeals from superior-court de novo reviews of magistrate-court rulings require using the discretionary appeal procedures under OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(1), which Roseman did not follow, so the appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for an interlocutory appeal in the case Arthur Sloman et al. v. Gwenetta Powers (LC No. ST22CV0118) and denied the application. The order is a brief ministerial ruling from the Court's Clerk dated April 7, 2026, and contains no further explanation of the court's reasoning or the underlying dispute. The denial means the moving party will not receive immediate appellate review of the trial court's interlocutory order and must proceed in the trial court or seek other appellate remedies allowed by law.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Joseph Michael Hirsch's appeal for failure to comply with the Court's docketing and briefing rules. The appellant did not file the required enumeration of errors and brief within the time ordered by the Court, despite a specific March 17, 2026 order giving a March 27, 2026 deadline. Because the filings were not received by the court, the appeal was deemed abandoned and dismissed under the Court of Appeals rules cited in the order.

The Court of Appeals denied Clarence Cowart's emergency motion asking this Court to order the trial court clerk to immediately transmit the trial record or to certify the cause of delay. Cowart's appeal from a dispossessory order was not docketed because the transcript was not timely transmitted. The Court held that issues about delay and possible dismissal under OCGA § 5-6-48(c) must be decided first by the trial court after notice and hearing, so Cowart cannot bypass those proceedings by seeking relief in the Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals dismissed April Campbell’s application for discretionary review of a magistrate court dispossessory judgment because the court lacks jurisdiction. Columbia Park Citi obtained a magistrate judgment on February 25, 2026 awarding possession and $11,773.69 in past-due rent. Campbell filed for discretionary review on March 10, 2026, which was 13 days after the judgment. The court held that appeals in dispossessory actions must be filed within seven days, so Campbell’s filing was untimely and the Court declined to transfer the matter to the state or superior court.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Tony L. Ware’s direct appeal of a January 23, 2026 trial-court order that corrected a clerical error under OCGA § 9-11-60(g). The court found it lacked jurisdiction because the corrected order left issues pending in the trial court and was therefore not a final judgment subject to direct appeal. The court also rejected Ware’s arguments that the order dissolved an injunction or could be treated as a collateral attack under the collateral-order doctrine, explaining those paths required interlocutory application or were inapplicable here.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal in A26A1231 because the appellant failed to comply with the Court's docketing notice and Court of Appeals Rule 23(a) by not filing an enumeration of errors and brief within the required time. The court had given a specific deadline of March 27, 2026, after an earlier order on March 17, 2026, but the appellant did not file the required documents. For these procedural violations, the Court concluded the appeal was abandoned and ordered it dismissed.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted the City of Atlanta's application for an interlocutory appeal in the case styled City of Atlanta v. Ronald Frank Petty, Jr. The court ordered that the appellant may file a Notice of Appeal within 10 days of the order and directed the Clerk of Superior Court to include this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals. The order is procedural: it authorizes an immediate appeal before final judgment and sets a short deadline for filing the notice and for inclusion of the order in the appellate record.

The Court of Appeals dismissed a direct discretionary appeal from a magistrate-court dispossessory judgment because it lacks jurisdiction. After the magistrate court granted Star Borrower SFR6 LP a writ of possession on March 11, 2026, defendants filed this application for discretionary appeal to the Court of Appeals. The court explained that appeals from magistrate courts are ordinarily taken by a new (de novo) appeal to the state or superior court under OCGA § 15-10-41(b)(1), and therefore the Court of Appeals may review such matters only after that intermediate review. The filing was transferred to the magistrate court for transmission to the state or superior court.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted the appellant Star Venture Auto, LLC’s motion to withdraw its appeal in the case against Jacquelyn Taylor. By granting the motion, the appellate court released jurisdiction back to the trial court effective upon receipt of the order. The decision is procedural: the court did not address the merits of the underlying dispute but approved dismissal of the appeal and returned the matter to the trial court for further proceedings or finalization there.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted discretionary review of Akeno Reid’s challenge to trial-court orders denying his motions to vacate child support and contempt orders. After reviewing the full record and a related earlier appeal (A25A0917), the Court concluded that granting review was improvident and dismissed Reid’s appeal. The court did not address the merits of Reid’s claims and instead ended the appeal because discretionary review was inappropriate under the circumstances.

The Court of Appeals dismissed the Mulbahs' application for discretionary review in a dispossessory (eviction) case because it was untimely. After the magistrate ruled for defendant KL Capital, LLC, the Mulbahs sought review in superior court; that court dismissed their petition on 2026-02-12 and denied reconsideration on 2026-03-04. The Mulbahs filed for discretionary review on 2026-03-09, but Georgia law requires such appeals in dispossessory actions to be filed within seven days of the judgment, and a reconsideration motion does not extend that deadline. Because timeliness is jurisdictional, the court dismissed the application.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted an application for interlocutory appeal filed by Fowl Life Foods, LLC in the case against Matthew Gray. The court's order allows the appellant to file a Notice of Appeal within 10 days of the order (dated April 1, 2026) and directs the superior court clerk to include this order in the record sent to the Court of Appeals. The decision is procedural: the court accepted review of an otherwise non-final interlocutory matter and set the filing and record-transmission requirements to effectuate that review.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted Chick‑fil‑A, Inc.'s application for an interlocutory appeal in the case Chick‑fil‑A, Inc. v. Matthew Gray. The court ordered that the appellant may file a Notice of Appeal within 10 days of the April 1, 2026 order and directed the Superior Court clerk to include this order in the record sent to the Court of Appeals. This is an administrative order allowing the interlocutory appeal to proceed, not a decision on the merits of the underlying dispute.