Opinion
A23E0046
04-28-2023
RAJ K. PATEL v. UNITED PARCEL SERVICES, INC.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
Raj Patel has filed an emergency motion under Court of Appeals Rule 40 (b) in which he asks this Court to issue a writ of mandamus directing the Fulton County State Court to rule on one or more motions filed by Patel in that court.
The materials Patel submitted with his emergency motion do not contain any of the motions on which he seeks rulings from the state court.
"Generally, the superior courts of this state have the power, in proper cases, to issue process in the nature of mandamus, . . . 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). An appellate court has limited original mandamus authority in aid of its jurisdiction. See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. I, Par. IV. Mandamus will issue "only if (1) no other adequate legal remedy is available to effectuate the relief sought; and (2) the applicant has a clear legal right to such relief." Bibb County v. Monroe County, 294 Ga. 730, 734 (2) (755 S.E.2d 760) (2014). Thus, 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. 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.").
Here, the materials submitted with Patel's emergency motion contain no indication that he has sought a ruling in the superior court on the claims he seeks to raise in a mandamus petition. This case therefore does not present one of the extremely rare instances in which this Court will exercise original mandamus jurisdiction. See Gay v. Owens, 292 Ga. 480, 482-483 (2) (738 S.E.2d 614) (2013). Rather, Patel must first pursue relief in the superior court. See Graham, 252 Ga. at 123; Brown, 251 Ga. at 436; Expedia, Inc., 305 Ga.App. at 455 (2) (b). Accordingly, Patel's emergency motion is hereby DENIED.