Green Tree Servicing, LLC v. Maxwell Jones

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,__________________ July 15, 2014 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A14A2001. GREEN TREE SERVICING, LLC v. MAXWELL JONES et al. Green Tree Servicing, LLC, defendant in the case below, has filed a notice of appeal from the trial court’s order purporting to confirm an arbitration award and to enter judgment in favor of plaintiffs Maxwell and Cynthia Jones. As this Court noted in Barge v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 245 Ga. App. 112 ( 535 SE2d 837 ) (2000), however, the order confirming the arbitration award and the entry of judgment must be on separate documents. See id. at 117 (2); see also OCGA § 9-9-15 (a) (upon confirmation of an arbitration award, “judgment shall be entered in the same manner as provided by Chapter 11 of this title and be enforced as any other judgment or decree”). Where, as here, both actions are undertaken in a single document, there is no valid final judgment. Barge, supra. Because Green Tree has not demonstrated that the trial court entered final judgment as contemplated by OCGA § 9-9-15, it was required to follow the interlocutory appeal procedures in OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) and obtain a timely certificate of immediate review. Its failure to do so deprives us of jurisdiction over this appeal, which is hereby DISMISSED. See Scruggs v. Ga. Dept. of Human Resources, 261 Ga. 587, 588 (1) ( 408 SE2d 103 ) (1991). Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 07/15/2014 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.