FULTON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT v. S.C, a MINOR, BY AND THROUGH HER NEXT FRIEND, PARENT AND LEGAL GUARDIAN PRAVEEN CHANDRA

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: July 30, 2025
• Docket: A25A2191
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ July 30, 2025

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A25A2191. FULTON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. S.C., A MINOR, BY AND THROUGH HER NEXT FRIEND, PARENT AND LEGAL GUARDIAN PRAVEEN CHANDRA.

Following disciplinary proceedings, student S. C. was removed from her Fulton County School District school. The disciplinary ruling was later reversed and S. C. attempted to re-enroll. When the District refused reinstatement, S. C. filed an action for mandamus relief, which the trial court granted on May 13, 2025. The District filed both an application for discretionary review and a notice of appeal from the May 13 order. This Court denied the District’s application for discretionary review. See Case No. A25D0427 (June 26, 2025). This is the direct appeal. While judgments and orders granting or refusing to grant mandamus are generally directly appealable, see OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (7), a party “is not entitled to another bite at the apple by way of a second appeal.” Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320, 320 (540 SE2d 612) (2001). This Court’s denial of the District’s application for discretionary review constitutes a decision on the merits. See Elrod v. Sunflower Meadows Dev., LLC, 322 Ga. App. 666, 670 (4) (745 SE2d 846) (2013) (“[W]hen this Court examines a request for a discretionary appeal, it acts in an error-correcting mode such that a denial of the application is on the merits, and the order denying the application is res judicata with respect to the substance of the requested review.”) (punctuation omitted). Thus, the District “has no right to file a direct appeal and obtain a second review of those same claims.” Northwest Social & Civic Club v. Franklin, 276 Ga. 859, 860 (583 SE2d 858) (2003) (punctuation omitted); see Hook v. Bergen, 286 Ga. App. 258, 261 (1) (649 SE2d 313) (2007) (holding that party was estopped from seeking further judicial review of same order when discretionary application had been denied). Accordingly, this direct appeal is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 07/30/2025 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.