Tyrus Alphonse Williams v. Danielle Forte, Clerk

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 10, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26O0022. TYRUS ALPHONSE WILLIAMS v. DANIELLE FORTE, CLERK.

Tyrus Alphonse Williams filed this original mandamus petition, seeking an order compelling Danielle Forte, the Muscogee County Clerk of Superior and State Court, to accept documents for filing.1 Williams has not, however, shown that this is one of the rare cases in which this Court will exercise its limited original mandamus jurisdiction.

“Generally, the superior courts of this state have the power, in proper cases, to issue process in the nature of mandamus, prohibition, specific performance, quo warranto, and injunction, and hence the need to resort to the appellate courts for such relief by petition filed in the appellate courts will be extremely rare.” Brown v. Johnson, 251 Ga. 436, 436 (306 SE2d 655) (1983); see also Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. I, Par. IV. As the Supreme Court of Georgia recently made clear, an appellate court’s authority to issue such writs “is connected only to such powers as necessary in aid of its jurisdiction or to protect or effectuate its judgments. It does not grant jurisdiction to [the appellate court] to issue process as an original matter wholly unconnected to its appellate jurisdiction.” Arnold v. Alexander, 321 Ga. 330, 334(1) (914 SE2d 311) (2025) (punctuation omitted). Thus, except in the rarest of cases, the procedure to be followed before seeking to invoke this Court’s original mandamus jurisdiction is to file the petition in the appropriate lower court first. See Graham v.

1 Williams filed his mandamus petition in the Supreme Court, which transferred the petition to this Court. S26O1231 (May 19, 2026).

Cavender, 252 Ga. 123, 123 (311 SE2d 832) (1984); Expedia, Inc. v. City of Columbus, 305 Ga. App. 450, 455(2)(b) (699 SE2d 600) (2010).

Here, Williams does not allege that he attempted to file a mandamus petition in the superior court or that any such petition was refused for filing. Because it does not appear that Williams attempted to comply with the requisite procedure for obtaining mandamus relief, this is not one of the extremely rare cases in which this Court will exercise original jurisdiction. Accordingly, this petition is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/10/2026

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.