---
title: Ga. Const. Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. V. Equal division of court.
collection: code
id: ga-const:art-vi-sec-v-para-v
cite_as: Ga. Const. Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. V
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date: 2016
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---

# Ga. Const. Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. V. Equal division of court.

A constitution provision shown as in force is in force as printed in the volume. A court decision can make a printed provision unenforceable without changing the volume, and the volume does not record that.

In the event of an equal division of the Judges when sitting as a body, the case shall be immediately transmitted to the Supreme Court.

## 1976 Constitution.

Art. VI, Sec. II, Paras. IV and VIII.

## One Question in Case.

This paragraph contemplates the transfer by the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of cases where the judges of the Court of Appeals are equally divided on all questions in the case which would require an affirmance or reversal of the judgment of the trial court, and does not provide for a transfer by that court to the Supreme Court of any case where there is an equal division between the judges of the Court of Appeals on an isolated question in the case. Atlantic Coast Line R.R. v. Godard, 211 Ga. 41, 83 S.E.2d 591 (1954) (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. V).

When the judges of the Court of Appeals are not equally divided in the case at bar on all questions presented by the writ of error which would either require an affirmance or a reversal of the judgments excepted to, but only as to one of the questions in the case, the Supreme Court is without jurisdiction of the case. Atlantic Coast Line R.R. v. Clinard, 211 Ga. 340, 86 S.E.2d 1 (1955).

If six judges would affirm and six

## Would Not.

In a review of a denial of a motion to suppress, six judges of the Georgia Court of Appeals would have affirmed, and six would not have affirmed; because there was an equal division, the Court of Appeals should have immediately transferred the case to the Supreme Court of Georgia, pursuant to Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. V, Para. V. The judges’ differences of opinion about whether the judgment of the trial court should be set aside as ‘‘reversed’’ or instead as ‘‘vacated’’ were not dispositive. Rodriguez v. State, 295 Ga. 362, 761 S.E.2d 19 (2014).

Cited in Rustin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 254 Ga. 494, 330 S.E.2d 356 (1985); Garland v. State, 263 Ga. 495, 435 S.E.2d 431 (1993); Rai v. Reid, 294 Ga. 270, 751 S.E.2d 821 (2013); Ford Motor Co. v. Conley, 294 Ga. 530, 757 S.E.2d 20 (2014).