Opinion
22663.
SUBMITTED OCTOBER 13, 1964.
DECIDED NOVEMBER 5, 1964.
Appellate procedure. DeKalb Superior Court. Before Judge Dean.
Marvin P. Nodvin, for plaintiff in error.
Charles H. Wills, contra.
The certificate of the trial judge does not amount to a certification that the bill of exceptions is true, but, on the contrary, shows that it is not true. "A certificate to a bill of exceptions, wherein the judge certifies that it is true, `except as hereinafter qualified,' and then adds the qualification after the close of the general certificate, does not amount to a certification that the bill of exceptions as written is true; and the writ of error must be dismissed." Central of Georgia R. Co. v. Mills, 143 Ga. 47 ( 84 S.E. 120); Hatcher v. Smith Gordon, 84 Ga. 451 ( 11 S.E. 1064); Jarriel v. Jarriel, 115 Ga. 23 ( 41 S.E. 262); Adamson v. Bradley, 147 Ga. 328 ( 93 S.E. 894); Fischer v. Carpenter, 178 Ga. 224 ( 172 S.E. 464); Bentley v. Gordon, 188 Ga. 103 ( 2 S.E.2d 912); Beasley v. Georgia Power Co., 207 Ga. 188 ( 60 S.E.2d 363); Wofford v. Nance, 217 Ga. 640 ( 124 S.E.2d 72).
Writ of error dismissed. All the Justices concur.
SUBMITTED OCTOBER 13, 1964 — DECIDED NOVEMBER 5, 1964.
On January 17, 1964, the judge of the superior court, sitting without the intervention of a jury, entered a final decree of divorce between the parties, and provided in the decree that the agreement of the parties attached to the petition be made a part of the decree and judgment of the court.
On February 14, 1964, the defendant husband filed a motion for new trial on the usual general grounds, and a motion to vacate and set aside the divorce decree. Both motions were denied. The movant excepted, and the first assignment of error in the bill of exceptions is as follows: "To the ruling and judgment of the court in refusing to approve the Brief of Evidence presented, defendant, then and there excepted and now excepts, and assigns error thereon on the ground that said denial was contrary to law in that the Brief of Evidence was an exact quotation of the sworn testimony of the plaintiff given in deposition on May 1, 1964, before the Honorable Howard E. Worley, Notary Public, as to the full content of the testimony before the Honorable William T. Dean, Judge, DeKalb Superior Court, at the time of the granting of the final divorce."
This assignment of error was not approved by the trial judge. The judge's certificate recites that the purported brief of evidence tendered to him contained only the statement: "Joan Maddox Musgrove, plaintiff herein, being the only witness present, testified, `that everything in the petition was true.'" The trial judge certifies that he "does not recall the exact testimony of the witness, but does certify that each and every allegation in the divorce petition was substantiated by competent evidence." The defendant in error has filed a motion to dismiss the writ of error on several grounds.