William A. Acree v. Warden Marty Allen

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: March 20, 2018
• Docket: A18D0350
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ March 20, 2018

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A18D0350. WILLIAM A. ACREE v. WARDEN MARTY ALLEN, et al.

On November 29, 2017, the trial court denied prisoner William A. Acree’s filing of a pro se civil action under OCGA § 9-15-2 (d). Acree thereafter filed a motion for reconsideration, which was denied, and then a second motion for reconsideration, which was also denied. On February 23, 2018, Acree filed this application for discretionary review.1 We, however, lack jurisdiction. A notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of the entry of the order sought to be appealed. OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). “The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction upon an appellate court.” Perlman v. Perlman, 318 Ga. App. 731, 739 (4) (734 SE2d 560) (2012) (punctuation omitted). Instead of filing a timely notice of appeal from the trial court’s November 29 order, Acree filed a motion for reconsideration. However, the denial of a motion for reconsideration is not directly appealable, and the filing of such a motion does not extend the time for filing an appeal. 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).

1 Because Acree is incarcerated, his appeal is controlled by the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996, which requires that he proceed by discretionary application. See OCGA § 42-12-8. Because Acree filed this application 86 days after entry of the judgment he seeks to appeal, we lack jurisdiction to consider it, and it is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 03/20/2018 I certify that the above i s 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.