413 S.E.2d 725 | Ga. | 1992
This appeal concerns whether the appellee, who was the District Administrative Judge of the Fifth Judicial District, see OCGA § 15-5-4, and the Chief Judge of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, see Ga. L. 1963, pp. 646-647 (hereinafter appellee will be referred to as “the judge”) had the authority to issue the order that is the subject of this appeal. Without the benefit of an adversary proceeding, the judge interpreted the Open Records Act, OCGA §§ 50-18-70 to 50-18-75, as not permitting a private citizen to swear out an arrest warrant against a public official for a violation of the Act,
In issuing the order, the judge was interpreting the Open Records Act in a manner that would affect the substantive rights of potential litigants. For this reason, the order exceeds the scope of the judge’s administrative powers as District Administrative Judge of the Fifth Judicial District, see OCGA § 15-5-5,
Judgment reversed.
OCGA § 50-18-74 makes it a misdemeanor for a person to wilfully refuse to provide access to public records.
Section 15-5-5 provides as follows:
The duties and authority of each district administrative judge shall be as follows:
(1) To request, collect, and receive information from the courts of record within his district pursuant to uniform rules promulgated by the ten administrative judges; and
(2) To authorize and assign any superior court judge within the district to sit on any type of case or to handle other administrative or judicial matters within the district; ...
Section 2 of the Chief Judge Act, see Ga. L. 1963, pp. 646, 647, does no more than make the chief judge “responsible for the administration and expeditious disposition of the business of the superior court of said circuit.”
Section 3 of the Chief Judge Act provides that the chief judge may by published rule, or from time to time by order, allocate the jurisdiction and powers of the superior court of said circuit, and the duties of the judges thereof, among the judges of said circuit; may assign to the judges of said circuit such of the business of said circuit as he shall deem appropriate, provided that any assignment of cases to or among the other judges of said circuit shall be in accordance with a published rule of court; may make and publish calendars; may require reports from the clerk of court of said circuit and the other judges of said circuit relative to business pending before the court of said circuit; and generally shall supervise and direct the disposition of all the business of said court.