Peter v. Howerton v. Shawn Howerton

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: March 16, 2026
• Docket: A26D0402
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ March 16, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26D0402. PETER V. HOWERTON v. SHAWN HOWERTON.

In this domestic relations matter, the trial court found Peter Howerton in contempt of the final judgment and decree of divorce. Peter filed a motion for an extension of time to file his application for discretionary appeal with this Court, which we granted, giving Peter until March 9, 2026 to file the application. See Case No. A26E0139. However, Peter did not file his application until March 10, 2026; thus, this application is untimely. In his application materials, Peter submitted screenshots of two failed attempts to file his application with this Court’s docket. The only timely attempt to file was made on March 9, 2026 at 11:58 p.m.1 Nevertheless, the application was not actually filed until March 10. See Court of Appeals Rule 46 (a) (“The filing date and time of documents filed electronically is determined in accordance with the efiling instructions. Note that filings that fail to comply with Court rules will be rejected and the filing date will be the date the item is submitted in compliance with Court rules.”).2

1 The second attempt was made on March 10, 2026 at 12:19 a.m. 2 To the extent these screenshots constitute another motion for an extension of time, we are unable to issue another extension, because it was not made before the extended deadline. See OCGA § 5-6-39(d) (“Any application to any court, justice, or judge for an extension must be made before expiration of the period for filing as originally prescribed or as extended by a permissible previous order.”). And regardless, under this Court’s rules, we can only issue one extension for a “A failure to meet the statutory deadline for filing a discretionary application, which is 30 days under OCGA § 5-6-35 (d) plus any proper extensions pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-39, is a jurisdictional defect.” Crosson v. Conway, 291 Ga. 220, 220(1) (728 SE2d 617) (2012). Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction to consider this application, which is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 03/16/2026 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.

discretionary application. See Court of Appeals Rule 16(c).