O.C.G.A. § 23-3-68 (2019)

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Award of compensation to the special master is a part of the costs and does not affect the finality of the judgment for purposes of appeal. Green v. Kaplan, 237 Ga. 602, 229 S.E.2d 369 (1976). Jurisdiction to order special master fees. - Filing of a notice of appeal in the underlying action deprived a trial court of jurisdiction to thereafter order the payment of interim fees to a special master because ultimate responsibility for the fees was directly related to the resolution of the quiet title action that was not yet fully resolved at the time the trial court taxed the special master’s fee as costs of the action. Under such circumstances, the award of the special master’s fee was improper. Avren v. Garten, 289 Ga. 186, 710 S.E.2d 130 (2011). No hearing required. - O.C.G.A. § 23-3-68 did not require a hearing before the trial court as to the reasonableness of a special master’s fees and costs; moreover, the trial court had discretion to ap-

portion costs between the parties, and the allocation of costs was not controlled by which party prevailed. In part because taxpayers did not prevail on their claims against an assignee of the title to their property, the trial court did not err in assigning them 25 percent of the special master’s fees. Boyd v. JohnGalt Holdings, LLC, 294 Ga. 640, 755 S.E.2d 675 (2014). Award of fees was not an abuse of discretion. - A trial court’s order awarding a special master $9,500 in fees, to be borne equally by the parties in a quiet title/adverse possession case, was not an abuse of discretion. Simmons v. Cmty. Renewal & Redemption, LLC, 286 Ga. 6, 685 S.E.2d 75 (2009). Cited in Capers v. Camp, 244 Ga. 7, 257 S.E.2d 517 (1979); In re Rivermist Homeowners Ass’n, 244 Ga. 515, 260 S.E.2d 897 (1979); Bowen v. Laird, 348 Ga. App. 1, 821 S.E.2d 105 (2018); Republic Title Company, LLC v. Freeport Title and Guaranty, Inc., 351 Ga. App. 408, 829 S.E.2d 172 (2019).