Darrell Giles, Jr. v. Vin Loung

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: June 2, 2025
• Docket: A25A1861
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 02, 2025

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A25A1861. DARRELL GILES, JR. v. VIN LOUNG.

Darrell Giles filed a negligence action against Vin Loung seeking to recover damages from a vehicle collision. The case was called for trial in December 2023, and the court dismissed the action for lack of personal jurisdiction and failure to perfect service. In February 2024, Giles filed a motion to vacate and set aside the judgment of dismissal and reinstate his complaint for negligence. The trial court denied the motion on February 28, 2024, and Giles filed this direct appeal on March 27, 2024. We lack jurisdiction. Ordinarily, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the judgment or trial court order sought to be appealed. OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). Here, rather than timely appealing the order dismissing his action, Giles filed his February 2024 motion, which in substance sought either reconsideration of the judgment of dismissal or to have the judgment set aside. See Kuriatnyk v. Kuriatnyk, 286 Ga. 589, 590 (690 SE2d 397) (2010) (explaining that “substance, rather than nomenclature, governs pleadings”) (punctuation omitted). To the extent that Giles’s February 2024 motion may be construed as a motion for reconsideration, such a motion does not extend the time for filing an appellate challenge to an appealable order, and the denial of such a motion is not appealable in its own right. See Bell v. Cohran, 244 Ga. App. 510, 510-511 (536 SE2d 187) (2000); Savage v. Newsome, 173 Ga. App. 271, 271 (326 SE2d 5) (1985). And to the extent that the motion may be construed as an OCGA § 9-11-60 (d) motion to set aside, an appeal from an order denying such a motion requires the filing of an application for discretionary appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (a) (8), (b); Jim Ellis Atlanta v. Adamson, 283 Ga. App. 116, 116 (640 SE2d 688) (2006). For these reasons, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal, which is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/02/2025 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.