Opinion
A24D0136
11-29-2023
MIGUEL COSSIO v. SKYE COSSIO
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
In February 2023, the trial court entered a judgment and decree of divorce in this action. Miguel Cossio filed a motion for reconsideration or, in the alternative, motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. Miguel thereafter filed this application for discretionary review of the trial court's judgment and decree of divorce. Skye Cossio has filed a motion to dismiss Miguel's application on the ground that the case is still pending in the trial court.
See OCGA § 5-6-35 (d) (providing that an application shall be filed within 30 days of an order complained of, except when a motion for new trial has been filed, in which case the application may be filed within 30 days of the order finally disposing of the motion for new trial).
"In a divorce action, a decree which grants the parties a divorce but reserves an issue to be determined later is interlocutory." Islamkhan v. Khan, 299 Ga. 548, 550 (1) (787 S.E.2d 731) (2016). In its February 2023 order, the trial court specifically reserved the issues of attorney fees, contempt, and sanctions, which left the case pending below. See id. at 550 (1); Norrod v. Willingham, 361 Ga.App. 1, 3 (2) (862 S.E.2d 577) (2021) ("there is no final judgment and a case remains pending in the trial court where that court has explicitly reserved issues related to costs and attorney fees for future judgment"). Thus, in order to appeal from the judgment and decree of divorce, Miguel was required to comply with the interlocutory appeal procedure and obtain a certificate of immediate review. OCGA § 5-6-34 (b); Bailey v. Bailey, 266 Ga. 832, 833 (471 S.E.2d 213) (1996) (explaining that the discretionary appeal statute does not excuse a party seeking appellate review of an interlocutory order from complying with the additional requirements of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b)). Miguel's failure to follow the proper appellate procedure deprives us of jurisdiction to consider his application. Accordingly, Skye's motion to dismiss is hereby GRANTED and this application is hereby DISMISSED.