Court Filings

The Court of Appeals dismissed two consolidated direct appeals by Google, LLC and its employee Laura Revenko seeking review of a trial court order compelling them to comply with deposition notices and subpoenas in a divorce case. The court held it lacked jurisdiction because discovery orders in domestic relations cases listed in OCGA § 5-6-35 must be pursued by discretionary application, even if the order otherwise meets the collateral order criteria for immediacy. Because Google and Revenko did not file the required application for appeal, the appeals were dismissed.

The Court of Appeals dismissed an application for interlocutory appeal by guardians of a minor bitten by a dog because the trial court’s certificate of immediate review was untimely. After the trial court granted summary judgment for the homeowner (Jerry) on March 10, 2026, the court issued the required certificate only on April 2, 2026 — 23 days later. Because Georgia law requires the certificate be issued within ten days of the order and that requirement is jurisdictional, the appellate court concluded it lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the application. The plaintiffs must wait for a final judgment to pursue appeal rights.

The Georgia Court of Appeals reviewed an Application for Discretionary Appeal filed by Keithan B. Patmon from the State. After consideration, the court issued an order dated April 27, 2026, denying the application. The document is a brief administrative entry recording the court's disposition without additional written opinion or reasoning.

The Court of Appeals transferred an interlocutory application from Elizabeth Noell challenging the as-applied constitutionality and interpretation of Georgia's Equitable Caregiver Statute, OCGA § 19-7-3.1, to the Supreme Court of Georgia. Noell argued the statute must require that the biological parent (her) — not merely the other parent — foster or support a third party’s parental relationship with her children. The trial court rejected that argument, finding the statute requires only that “a parent” foster the relationship. Because the case involves an unsettled constitutional question and the Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over such matters, the Court of Appeals transferred the matter for disposition.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Vernard K. Carter, Jr.'s appeal from a superior court writ of possession because the appeal was subject to discretionary-appeal procedures. The case began as a dispossessory action in magistrate court, was reviewed de novo by the superior court, and then appealed directly to this Court. The Court held it lacked jurisdiction because Carter did not follow the statutory discretionary-appeal process required for appeals from superior-court de novo reviews of magistrate-court rulings (OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(1) and controlling precedent). The appeal was therefore dismissed.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Susanne E. Krupa’s direct appeal from a final divorce decree because appeals in divorce and other domestic relations cases must be pursued by discretionary application under OCGA § 5-6-35. Krupa filed a notice of appeal rather than the required discretionary application, and the court held that compliance with the discretionary appeals procedure is jurisdictional. Because Krupa did not follow that procedure, the court granted Timothy E. McLane’s motion to dismiss and dismissed the appeal.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Jonathan D. Reed’s appeal challenging parts of his 2007 convictions and sentence. Reed had previously litigated the same challenge to his hijacking sentence and earlier appeals were dismissed or resolved, so the court found it lacked jurisdiction to relitigate those issues. The court also held that claims attacking the validity of a conviction or asserting merger of sentences are not properly raised in a motion to vacate as void, and Reed’s consecutive-sentence challenge did not present a colorable voidness claim because each sentence was within statutory limits.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Gustavo Cisneros’s appeal from the trial court’s denial of his 2026 motion to vacate a void sentence. Cisneros argued several convictions should have merged (attempt with armed robbery, sexual battery with aggravated battery, and burglary with armed robbery). The court held that merger challenges attack convictions, not sentences, and therefore are not properly raised in a motion to vacate a void sentence. Because the motion did not present a colorable void-sentence claim, the Court of Appeals concluded it lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Austin Eugene Spargo's direct appeal from a trial court order revoking his probation because such appeals must be pursued by applying for a discretionary appeal under state law. The court explained that compliance with the discretionary-appeal procedure is jurisdictional, cited statute and precedent, and concluded it lacked jurisdiction to hear the direct appeal, so the appeal was dismissed.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted the appellant's motion to withdraw their appeal in Seres Capital GA, LLC v. Betty Jean Cook. By granting the motion the appellate court released jurisdiction back to the trial court, meaning the appeal is no longer active before the Court of Appeals and the case returns to the lower court for further proceedings. The order is a ministerial grant of withdrawal rather than a decision on the merits of the underlying dispute.

The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed the juvenile court’s order awarding permanent guardianship of infant A.A. to his paternal grandmother. The Department of Family and Children Services had petitioned for guardianship after dependency proceedings placed the children with the grandparents. The appellate court reviewed the record in the light most favorable to the juvenile court, found sufficient evidence supporting that reunification efforts would be detrimental and that guardianship served the child’s best interests, and rejected the mother’s procedural and legal challenges as either unpreserved, moot, or without merit.

The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the superior court and City of Tucker in denying Cox Store Management’s application for a license to operate coin-operated amusement machines (COAMs) at its Idlewood convenience store. The City’s 2022 COAM ordinance bars COAMs within the distance limits that apply to alcohol sales; the store is 80.2 yards from a nearby church. The court held that the enabling statute allows municipalities to impose distance restrictions for COAMs no more restrictive than those for alcohol sales, and that the ordinance’s application to Cox was therefore lawful regardless of the types of alcoholic beverages Cox sells.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Chuka Anene’s discretionary application for review of a February 3, 2026 divorce judgment because it was filed outside the 30-day statutory deadline. Anene filed the application on March 27, 2026 — 52 days after entry of the decree — and the court determined it lacked jurisdiction to consider untimely applications under OCGA § 5-6-35(d). The court therefore dismissed the application as untimely, noting a prior direct appeal by Anene had already been dismissed as improper in divorce cases.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for discretionary appeal in the criminal case of Joseph McClellan Raines (LC No. 2017CR0650) and denied the application on April 24, 2026. The order is brief and procedural: the court simply records that the application for discretionary review is denied, without published reasoning or discussion of the merits. The document is a certified court minute entry signed by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

The Georgia Court of Appeals denied Jeremy Knowles's emergency motion for a stay of enforcement because he had not filed a notice of appeal in the trial court. Although Knowles's application for discretionary review was granted on March 10, 2026, he was given ten days to file a notice of appeal and the court confirmed no notice had been filed in DeKalb County Superior Court. Because there was no notice to operate as a supersedeas of the trial court’s final order, the Court declined to use its emergency stay power under its rules and denied the motion.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal of USMAN MOHSIN for failure to comply with filing rules. The appellant did not file the required enumeration of errors and brief within twenty days after docketing and ignored the court's March 31, 2026 order to file by April 10, 2026. Because the appellant still had not filed the materials as of April 23, 2026, the court deemed the appeal abandoned and dismissed it under the court's procedural rules.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Saadi Orabi's appeal for failure to comply with docketing and briefing rules. The appellant did not respond to the notice of docketing or file the required enumeration of errors and brief within the time prescribed by Court of Appeals Rule 23(a) and Rule 13. The court had previously ordered those filings by February 20, 2026, but they were never filed, so the appeal was deemed abandoned and dismissed pursuant to Court of Appeals Rules 7 and 23(a).

The Court of Appeals dismissed Ricky R. Franklin’s direct appeal of a trial-court award of attorney fees to Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC and Wilmington Savings Fund Society because the appeal should have been pursued by filing an application for discretionary review under Georgia law. The trial court had awarded $14,354.50 in fees under OCGA § 9-15-14(b), and denied Franklin’s motions for a new trial and to set aside the fee award. The appellate court concluded it lacked jurisdiction because Franklin did not follow the mandatory discretionary appeals procedure required for appeals of attorney-fee awards.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Andre Latrell Burton’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Burton filed a notice of appeal on March 2, 2026 challenging the trial court’s November 5, 2025 denial of his 2024 motion to set aside his sentence. Because Georgia law requires a notice of appeal within 30 days of entry of the order and Burton’s notice was filed about four months late, the Court concluded it had no jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal without reaching the merits.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Willie Clarence Lee Jr.'s appeal from the trial court's December 4, 2025 dismissal of his motion to vacate, set aside, or reverse judgment because his notice of appeal, filed January 7, 2026, was untimely. The court explained that Georgia law requires a notice of appeal within 30 days of the judgment or order being appealed and that timely filing is an absolute jurisdictional requirement. Because Lee filed his notice 34 days after the order, the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal without reaching the motion's merits.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an Application for Discretionary Appeal in case A26D0443, Nancy Pierce Jo Jenkins v. Michelle Jenkins, arising from Liberty County case number 24CV002090. The court issued a short order dated April 23, 2026, denying the application for discretionary appeal. No opinion or reasoning beyond the denial was provided in the extract; the court simply ordered that the application be denied and the Clerk certified the minutes.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for discretionary appeal filed by Marquez Hutchinson from a case involving the Georgia Department of Human Services (ex rel. Jordan Hutchinson). After review, the Court denied the application for discretionary appeal on April 23, 2026. No opinion or substantive reasoning is included in the entry; the document is a short entry from the Clerk certifying denial of the application and recording the case and lower-court number.

The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the juvenile court's order discontinuing reunification services and approving a permanency plan of adoption for two minor children after finding the parents subjected the younger child, A. A., to chronic physical abuse. Medical evidence showed A. A. suffered twelve fractures in various healing stages; a child-abuse pediatrician concluded the injuries resulted from repeated adult-inflicted pulling and twisting. The parents invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege at the nonreunification hearing, and the court drew adverse inferences from that refusal. The appellate court held that the evidence met the clear-and-convincing standard for nonreunification and aggravated circumstances.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Ergin Tek’s direct appeal of a trial court order that removed a mechanic’s lien and found slander of title because the case was not final. The trial court reserved damages and attorney-fee issues for a later hearing, so the case remained pending. The Court explained that Tek needed either a final judgment, an express determination that there is no just reason for delay, or compliance with interlocutory appeal procedures (including a certificate of immediate review) to obtain appellate jurisdiction. Because Tek did not follow those procedures, the appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

The Court of Appeals dismissed Allied Property Group, LLC’s application for interlocutory review as untimely. Allied sought review after the trial court dismissed all its claims and granted a certificate of immediate review on March 17, 2026. Georgia law requires an application to this Court within ten days of that certificate, but Allied filed on March 31, 2026—four days late. Because compliance with OCGA § 5-6-34(b) is jurisdictional, the Court lacked authority to consider the late application and dismissed it, leaving Allied to await final judgment to pursue an appeal.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Russell Carl Nast’s direct appeal of the trial court’s October 8, 2025 order confirming an arbitration award and granting a divorce because appeals in divorce cases must proceed by discretionary-appeal application under OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(2). The court concluded the proper procedure was an application for discretionary appeal, and that procedure is jurisdictional, so the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the direct appeal. The court granted the motion to dismiss and denied the respondent’s request for a frivolous-appeal penalty.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed Tamera Montgomery’s appeal of a trial court order granting summary judgment to Milton Ruben Toyota of Augusta because Montgomery failed to file her appellant brief by the April 13, 2026 deadline and did not request an extension. The appeal had been docketed March 23, 2026, and under Court of Appeals Rule 23(a) the court dismissed for failure to prosecute. The order is procedural — the appellate court did not address the merits of the summary judgment ruling.

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed an attempted direct appeal by Olufeyijimi Awofadeju from a final divorce decree entered December 22, 2025. The court held it lacked jurisdiction because appeals in divorce and other domestic relations matters require a discretionary-appeal application under OCGA § 5-6-35, and the appellant did not follow that procedure. Because use of the discretionary-appeal process is jurisdictional, the improperly filed direct appeal could not proceed and was dismissed on April 22, 2026.

The Georgia Court of Appeals granted the appellee's motion to remand the case Downey Trees, Inc. v. Stephens to the State Court of Forsyth County. The clerk was ordered to remand the matter, and the order allows either party to file a new notice of appeal within 30 days after resolution of a pending motion to enforce settlement. The decision is procedural and simply returns the case to the state court for further proceedings rather than addressing the underlying merits.

The Georgia Court of Appeals considered an application for discretionary appeal filed by Nathaniel Blackmon, III in case A26D0445 (LC 19FM3068) and denied the application on April 22, 2026. The order is a short administrative disposition: the court declined to grant permission for the case to be heard as a discretionary appeal. No opinion or reasoning is provided in the document beyond the denial itself.