Oliver Endsley v. City of Atlanta

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,_________________ April 26, 2012

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A12D0340. OLIVER H. ENDSLEY, III v. CITY OF ATLANTA.

Oliver H. Endsley, III was charged with failing to obey a traffic signal and failing to have a valid driver’s license. Endsley appeared before the City of Atlanta municipal court, which bound over the traffic offenses to state court. The municipal court also found Endsley to be in contempt of court. Endsley sought to appeal the contempt ruling, and he filed this application for discretionary appeal.1 As a general rule, however, the ruling of a municipal court must be appealed – either directly or by certiorari – to the superior court. See OCGA § 5-4-3 (petition for certiorari to superior court); OCGA § 40-13-28 (defendant convicted of traffic offense has right of appeal to superior court). See, e. g., Dunn v. Mulling, 108 Ga. App. 9 (31 SE2d 794) (1968) (defendant in contempt of municipal court petitioned for certiorari in superior court). If the party is then aggrieved by the decision of the superior court, an application for discretionary appeal may be filed in this Court. See OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (1). The Georgia Constitution requires that “[a]ny court shall transfer to the appropriate court in the state any civil case in which it determines that jurisdiction or venue lies elsewhere.” See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. I, Par. VIII; Bosma v. Gunter, 258 Ga. 664 (373 SE2d 368) (1988). Accordingly, this application is hereby TRANSFERRED to the Fulton County superior court.

1 Endsley filed his application in the Supreme Court, which found no basis for the exercise of its jurisdiction and thus transferred the application to this Court.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 04/26/2012 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,_________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.