CHRISTOPHER W. MATHIS v. FLOYD COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ July 17, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26A2411. CHRISTOPHER W. MATHIS v. FLOYD COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT et al.

Christopher Mathis was convicted of 52 criminal charges related to his theft of more than $600,000 as the operator of a Ponzi scheme. We affirmed most of his convictions on appeal. Mathis v. State, 343 Ga. App. 206 (807 SE2d 4) (2017).1 Mathis later filed a mandamus petition against the Floyd County Superior Court and one of its judges, seeking to unseal certain documents and to acquire a copy of his indictment. The trial court dismissed the petition in March 2026. Three months later, Mathis filed a motion for an out-of-time appeal, claiming that he had not received notice of the March order. The trial court then entered an “Order Allowing Out of Time Appeal” that directed the court clerk to “prepare and transmit said appeal,” which it did. The record contains no notice of appeal.

Setting aside the jurisdictional implications of the absence of a notice of appeal, we must dismiss this appeal for a different reason. Although judgments and orders granting or refusing to grant mandamus are generally directly appealable under OCGA § 5-6-34(a)(7), under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, any appeal in a civil case that was initiated by a prisoner must come by discretionary application. See OCGA § 42-12-8; Jones v. Townsend, 267 Ga. 489, 490 (480 SE2d 24) (1997). Because Mathis is incarcerated, he was required to file an application for discretionary appeal in order to appeal the civil mandamus ruling. See Brock v. Hardman, 303 Ga. 729, 731(2) (814

1 We vacated his convictions for theft by taking and remanded for resentencing.

SE2d 736) (2018). For this reason, we lack jurisdiction over this direct appeal, which is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 07/17/2026

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.