O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 15-8-3 (2019)

When judges of city courts may preside in other city courts

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) The judges of the various city courts may preside in any of the city courts established by the General Assembly in the same manner as the superior court judges preside in the courts of one another; and any city court judge may exercise all the powers, duties, and functions devolved upon the judge of the city court over which he is called to preside by the request of the judge of such city court where the judge is disqualified or is providentially prevented from trying a case.

(b) Any judge of any city court in this state may preside and act in any other city court in this state upon the request of the regular judge thereof, and when so presiding and acting the judge shall have full power and authority over all matters pending in the court.

History

Ga. L. 1899, p. 48, § 1; Civil Code 1910, § 4828; Ga. L. 1929, p. 443, § 1; Code 1933, § 24-2201.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Constitutionality. - Ga. L. 1989, p. 48, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. § 15-8-3) did not violate Ga. Const. 1877, Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. I (see now Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. I, Para. III), providing that judges of the city courts and superior courts may alternate. Georgia F. & A. Ry. v. Sasser, 130 Ga. 394, 60 S.E. 997 (1908). City judge presiding in another court if regular judge is disqualified may try other cases, by consent of the parties, which were not pending. Baldwin v. Ragan, 6 Ga. App. 529, 65 S.E. 335 (1909).

City judge may hear motion for new trial. Herschman v. Crapps, 17 Ga. App. 671, 88 S.E. 38 (1916). Defendant estopped from questioning authority of judge. - Defendant cannot be heard to question authority of judge to serve when motion for new trial filed previously on other grounds. Gay v. Lewis, 101 Ga. App. 387, 114 S.E.2d 155 (1960). Cited in Spry v. State, 156 Ga. App. 74, 274 S.E.2d 2 (1980).

RESEARCH REFERENCES ALR. - Power of successor or substituted judge, in civil case, to render deci-

sion or enter judgment on testimony heard by predecessor, 84 A.L.R.5th 399.