Bellamy v. Rumer
Bellamy v. Rumer
Opinion of the Court
**638We granted George Bellamy's pro se application for discretionary appeal to address *270whether the Superior Court of Muscogee County erred in entering an order denying the filing of Bellamy's petition for mandamus. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse.
George Bellamy was convicted of malice murder in 1998 in Muscogee County. See Bellamy v. State ,
On July 3, 2017, with the assistance of counsel, Bellamy filed a substantially similar second motion entitled "Motion to Correct Clerical Error." On April 16, 2018, after two requests for a ruling had gone unanswered, Bellamy, pro se, filed a "Petition for Writ of Mandamus," seeking to have Judge Rumer "consider and issue a ruling on the pending motion to correct the clerical error." On June 7, 2018, another judge of the Superior Court of Muscogee County issued a form order denying the filing of Bellamy's "Civil Complaint" against Judge Rumer pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-2 (d), pertaining to the judicial review of pro se filings.
Upon granting Bellamy's application for a discretionary appeal, this Court directed the parties to consider whether the superior court erred in denying the filing of the mandamus petition. Based on exhibits attached to its briefs, the State contends that Judge Rumer denied Bellamy's pending motion to correct the alleged misnomer on September 25, 2018; therefore, the State argues, the issue raised in this appeal is moot. However, that order is not included in the official appellate record and the exhibits attached to the State's brief are not part of the official record on appeal. Consequently, there is no evidence before this Court supporting the State's contention that the appeal is moot. See Arnold v. State ,
**640Based on our review of the record, we must conclude that the superior court's order denying the filing of Bellamy's mandamus petition pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-2 (d) was error. A justiciable issue is patent from the face of Bellamy's mandamus petition, that is, whether Judge Rumer failed to comply with his duty to timely rule on Bellamy's pending motion. The record shows that, when Bellamy filed the mandamus petition, he had been waiting for a ruling on his motion for nine months, which is considerably outside the maximum period during which a judge is required to decide a pending motion. See OCGA § 15-6-21.
Judgment reversed.
All the Justices concur, except Warren, J., not participating.
OCGA § 9-15-2 (d) provides:
When a civil action is presented for filing under this Code section by a party who is not represented by an attorney, the clerk of court shall not file the matter but shall present the complaint or other initial pleading to a judge of the court. The judge shall review the pleading and, if the judge determines that the pleading shows on its face such a complete absence of any justiciable issue of law or fact that it cannot be reasonably believed that the court could grant any relief against any party named in the pleading, then the judge shall enter an order denying filing of the pleading. If the judge does not so find, then the judge shall enter an order allowing filing and shall return the pleading to the clerk for filing as in other cases. An order denying filing shall be appealable in the same manner as an order dismissing an action.
If a superior court judge fails to comply with OCGA § 15-6-21, a petitioner may seek a writ of mandamus from another superior court judge. See Brown v. Johnson ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BELLAMY v. RUMER.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published