227 Ga. 336 | Ga. | 1971
The appeal must be dismissed. (1) The judgments appealed from are not final judgments. The citation for contempt partakes of a proceeding involving both civil and criminal contempt. The issues have not been heard and no judgment of contempt of any kind has been rendered. The matters objected to are not objectionable insofar as civil contempt is concerned and appellants’ contention that the rulings are harmful
The case was previously before the court upon appeal by defendants, appellants herein, from a preliminary injunction issued by Jackson Superior Court on October 22, 1969, which provided:
"It is thereupon, Considered, Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that the defendants, J. D. Jewell, Inc., Sam Underwood, Randall Gee and Jeff Jones, their servants, agents and employees, be and they are hereby temporarily restrained from processing spoiled commodities and are hereby required to maintain an up to date sanitary plant at all times, and further from operating said plant so as to create the least foul and offensive odor possible, and from discharging unwholesome materials in said streams, and these conditions are to be met within a period of six months in compliance with said order.” See J. D. Jewell, Inc. v. Hancock, 226 Ga. 480 (175 SE2d 847). Subsequent to the remand from this court, plaintiffs filed application for contempt, on August 17, 1970, alleging that defendants continued to operate the J. D. Jewell Company plant so as to create foul and offensive odors. The application for contempt has not yet been heard or determined and the present appeal seeks review of four pre-trial orders entered by the trial judge on November 4, as follows: (1) Overruling defendants’ motion to quash plaintiffs’ notice to produce. (2) Sus
Stated differently, appellants contend that an order, as here, which in substance requires appellants to produce evidence to be used against them in a pending criminal prosecution is necessarily final, and that to deny review at this stage would (1) require appellants to surrender the constitutional right at the same time it is being asserted, and (2) thereby render the question moot so that if not reviewed at this stage, it will never be reviewable.
The appellants contend that the application for contempt involves both civil and criminal contempt, for after alleging that defendants have violated and continue to violate the court’s order, the application prays: "1. That a rule nisi issue and be directed to the defendants named requiring them to show cause at a time and place to be fixed by the court why they should not each be adjudged in contempt of court and why they should not.be punished as prescribed by law. 2. That each of said defendants be held in contempt of court for contemptuously disregarding a judgment and order of this court and in refusing to obey the mandate from this court on the issues determined adversely to them by this honorable court and after the same having been affirmed by a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of Georgia. 3. That defendants each be imprisoned until their contemptuous conduct has been purged and the order of this court has been fully complied with.”