Opinion
A23A1423
05-11-2023
VICTORIA CHRISTIAN RUSSELL v. WILLIAM A. FEARS.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
Victoria Christian Russell has filed an original mandamus petition in this Court requesting that we order Superior Court Judge William A. Fears to transfer her divorce case to a court in Florida and vacate multiple trial court orders in various cases for lack of jurisdiction. In the alternative, she asks that we issue a writ of prohibition restraining the respondent from continuing to exercise jurisdiction over matters relating to custody and visitation of her minor children.
"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 S.E.2d 655) (1983). Rather, the procedure to be followed before seeking to invoke this Court's original jurisdiction is to file the petition in the appropriate lower court first. See Graham v. Cavender, 252 Ga. 123, 123 (311 S.E.2d 832) (1984); Expedia, Inc. v. City of Columbus, 305 Ga.App. 450, 455 (2) (b) (699 S.E.2d 600) (2010) ("Except in the rarest of cases, litigants seeking to invoke this Court's original jurisdiction . . . must first petition the superior court for such relief."). Being a respondent, "the superior-court judge[ ] will disqualify, another superior-court judge will be appointed to hear and determine the matter, and the final decision may be appealed[.]" Graham, supra.
This is not one of the extremely rare instances in which this Court will exercise its original jurisdiction. See Gay v. Owens, 292 Ga. 480, 482-483 (2) (738 S.E.2d 614) (2013). Until Russell has pursued mandamus and prohibition relief in superior court and obtained a ruling thereon, there is no basis for this Court to exercise jurisdiction. See Brown, 251 Ga. at 436-437. Accordingly, this petition is hereby DISMISSED.