Patricia Creech v. Surgery South, P.C., A17A1476

Appeal from a trial-court judgment where certain exhibits and deposition transcripts were not included in the appellate record; a digital CD containing relevant evidence was damaged.
Appellees moved to supplement the appellate record with materials the Appellants had omitted and asked the Court of Appeals to remand to the trial court to complete the record.
Both parties agreed the omitted materials were relevant and that the trial-court clerk had not complied with requests to supplement the record; parties acknowledged uncertainty about how long repair/recovery of the damaged CD would take.
Appellants separately sought an extension to file their appellate brief (requesting a June 12, 2017 deadline) if the Court did not remand for record completion.
The Court of Appeals considered Georgia precedent prioritizing a complete and true record on appeal, balanced against avoiding undue delay, and noted the first interest (completeness) prevails until decision.
Court granted the motion to supplement, removed the appeal from its docket, remanded to the trial court to identify and supplement omitted materials, directed the trial court to enter an order specifying what was considered below, and set a 30-day deadline to refile a notice of appeal after that order; the appellants’ extension request was denied as moot.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the appellate record should be supplemented and the case remanded to the trial court to complete the record	Appellees: omitted exhibits, depositions, and a damaged CD were part of the trial-court proceedings and must be included so the appeal reflects the true and complete facts	Appellants: did not dispute entitlement to supplementation but noted uncertainty about timing and sought an extension for briefing if no remand	Court granted supplementation and remanded for completion of the record; appeal removed from docket and parties will refile after trial-court order
Whether the Court should delay decision for record completion vs. avoid further delay	Appellees: completeness of the record is paramount; parties must be given fair and equal opportunity to present evidence on appeal	Appellants: concerned about uncertain delay due to damaged CD and counsel travel; requested briefing extension if remand denied	Court applied precedent prioritizing a complete record over delay and remanded; extension request denied as moot

Damani v. State, 284 Ga. 372 (Supreme Court of Georgia) (explaining priorities when considering supplementation under OCGA § 5-6-48 and that completeness prevails over delay)
Peterson v. Beasley, 274 Ga. 882 (Supreme Court of Georgia) (remanding for completion of the record when admissibility of exhibits was unclear)
Ga. Messenger Serv., Inc. v. Bradley, 302 Ga. App. 247 (Georgia Court of Appeals) (treating depositions relied on by the court as if filed for purposes of the record)
Snipes v. Hous. Auth. of DeKalb Cty., 250 Ga. App. 771 (Georgia Court of Appeals) (vacating and remanding to reconsider summary judgment with depositions that were relied upon but not filed)
Custom Lighting & Decorating, Ltd. v. Hampshire Co., 204 Ga. App. 293 (Georgia Court of Appeals) (allowing trial court to supplement the record with depositions given to the judge but not filed)
Galardi v. Steele-Inman, 259 Ga. App. 249 (Georgia Court of Appeals) (removing appeal from docket and remanding for completion of the record)
Slaughter v. State, 199 Ga. App. 695 (Georgia Court of Appeals) (remanding to afford both parties an equal opportunity to supplement the record)