Opinion
36172.
DECIDED APRIL 29, 1980. REHEARING DENIED MAY 20, 1980.
Divorce. Clayton Superior Court. Before Judge Miller.
Moffett Henderson, F. Glenn Moffett, Jr., L. Prentice Eager, III, for appellant.
Kingloff, Clifford Travis, J. Stephen Clifford, for appellee.
Appellant, the wife, filed a divorce action against appellee in Clayton County, Georgia. Upon motion by the husband, a bifurcated trial was ordered with the first trial to determine only the question of jurisdiction and venue, the husband having filed a plea to the jurisdiction alleging that he was a resident of the State of Texas. This trial was conducted and resulted in a directed verdict for the husband. In the order directing the verdict, the trial court stated: "[T]here is absolutely no conflict in the evidence as to any material issue, and that the evidence introduced in this matter, with all reasonable deductions therefrom, demands a verdict in favor of the defendant . . ."
The wife appealed directly to this court without having first made application. Code Ann. § 6-701.1 provides that application shall be filed in certain types of cases including appeals from judgments or orders granting or refusing a divorce. The directed verdict in this case concluded the litigation in the trial court and therefore amounted to a refusal to grant a divorce. Therefore, an application for discretionary appeal under the provisions of Code Ann. § 6-701.1 was required and in its absence the appeal must be dismissed.
In any event, a review of the record reveals that the trial court appropriately considered and weighed the evidence in arriving at his decision to direct a verdict. Under these circumstances, the application would have been denied even if it had been properly filed.
Appeal dismissed. All the Justices concur.