Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,____________________ June 09, 2016 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A16A1612. ANDREW CARTER v. RONDA INGRAM et al.

Andrew Carter brought this civil action against the defendants, Ronda Ingram and Bill Ingram. On January 28, 2015, the trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants. Carter filed a motion to vacate judgment, which the trial court denied on November 20, 2015. On December 18, 2015, Carter filed a notice of appeal to this Court. The defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the appeal.

A notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of the entry of the order sought to be appealed. See OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). “The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction upon an appellate court.”

Perlman v. Perlman, 318 Ga. App. 731, 739 (4) (734 SE2d 560) (2012) (citation and punctuation omitted). Instead of filing a timely notice of appeal from the trial court’s January 2015 summary judgment order, Carter filed a motion to vacate judgment, which was in substance a motion for reconsideration.1 See Masters v. Clark, 269 Ga. App. 537, 538 (604 SE2d 556) (2004) (“[T]here is no magic in the nomenclature used. Under our rules, pleadings are judged by their function and not the name used.” (citation and punctuation omitted)). However, the denial of a motion for reconsideration is not directly appealable, and the filing of such a motion does not extend the time for filing an appeal. See Bell v. Cohran, 244 Ga. App. 510, 511 (536 SE2d 187) (2000); Savage v. Newsome, 173 Ga. App. 271 (326 SE2d 5) (1985).

In his motion, Carter did not present grounds for setting aside the order under OCGA § 9-11-60 (d); instead, he argued that some of the defense witnesses gave conflicting statements and that he had other evidence for the trial court to consider.

Because Carter failed to file a notice of appeal within 30 days of the entry of the appealable judgment entered against him, his appeal is untimely. The defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted, and the appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 06/09/2016 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.