Background
Barclays Bank Delaware sued Shiwila Willis Jones to recover an unpaid credit-card balance. The trial court granted Barclays summary judgment and awarded it $7,424.84.
Jones sought to directly appeal that judgment to the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Although summary-judgment orders generally may be directly appealed, Georgia’s discretionary-appeal procedure applies when the judgment is $10,000 or less.
Because the judgment for Barclays was $7,424.84, Jones was required to file an application for discretionary appeal. Her failure to use that procedure deprived the court of jurisdiction over a direct appeal.
Key Takeaways
- A summary judgment of $10,000 or less requires a discretionary-appeal application under OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(6).
- Filing a direct appeal instead of following the discretionary procedure is jurisdictionally fatal.
- The Court of Appeals did not reach the merits of Barclays’s credit-card claim.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that the amount of the judgment can determine the required route to appellate review. Parties seeking to challenge a qualifying low-dollar judgment must timely pursue a discretionary appeal rather than assume that summary judgment is directly appealable.