James J. Erdy v. Trustees of the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church, Inc.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,____________________ December 05, 2014 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A15A0657. JAMES J. ERDY et al. v. TRUSTEES OF THE NORTH GEORGIA CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST CHURCH, INC. et al. The appellants, including James J. Erdy, sought to intervene in a declaratory judgment action. On June 23, 2014, the trial court entered an order denying the motion to intervene. The appellants filed both an application for discretionary appeal and a notice of direct appeal from this ruling.1 The discretionary appeal, which was docketed as Case Number A15D0032, was denied on October 2, 2014. We now have the appellants’ direct appeal before us. “[W]hen this Court examines a request for a discretionary appeal, it acts in an error-correcting mode such that a denial of the application is on the merits, and the order denying the application is res judicata with respect to the substance of the requested review.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Elrod v. Sunflower Meadows Development, 322 Ga. App. 666, 668 (4) (745 SE2d 846) (2013); see also Northwest Social & Civic Club v. Franklin, 276 Ga. 859, 860 (583 SE2d 858) (2003). Our denial of the appellants’ discretionary application bars this direct appeal from the same order. Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED. Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 12/05/2014 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written. , Clerk. 1 Both the application and notice of appeal were filed to the Supreme Court, which transferred the matters to this Court.