--- title: 4918 Covington Hwy, LLC v. Dekalb County Tax Assessors collection: opinions id: S24G1350 cite_as: 4918 Covington Hwy, LLC v. Dekalb County Tax Assessors, S24G1350 (Ga. Jan. 30, 2025) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24G1350 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24G1350.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24G1350/text source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10328357/4918-covington-hwy-llc-v-dekalb-county-tax-assessors/ date: 2025-01-30 status: published corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-18 license: Public record of the Supreme Court of Georgia, via CourtListener and the court's own website; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/2025.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24A1369.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24A1187.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/index.md omitted: opinion extras omitted_chars: 1193 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24G1350.md?full=1 docket: S24G1350 court: Supreme Court of Georgia case_type: civil disposition: Court of Appeals' judgment vacated; appeal dismissed as moot vote: All the Justices concur word_count: 338 date_filed_source: courtlistener record_source: courtlistener legal_areas: - civil - tax law - civil procedure upstream_id: "10328357" summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 --- # 4918 Covington Hwy, LLC v. Dekalb County Tax Assessors Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S24G1350, filed 2025-01-30. ## Opinion NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion. SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA Case No. S24G1350 January 30, 2025 The Honorable Supreme Court met pursuant to adjournment. The following order was passed: 4918 COVINGTON HWY, LLC v. DEKALB COUNTY TAX ASSESSORS. On November 19, 2024, this Court granted Appellant 4918 Covington Hwy, LLC’s petition for certiorari in this case. Appellant and Appellee DeKalb County Tax Assessors later filed a Consent Motion to Withdraw the Appeal due to settlement, but the settlement was contingent on the successful withdrawal of the appeal. On January 24, 2025, we issued an order construing the parties’ motion as a motion by Appellant to withdraw its petition for certiorari and denying the motion as so construed. However, we informed the parties that if they reached a settlement not conditioned on further action of this Court, thus rendering the appeal moot, they could notify us of that development, and we would vacate the Court of Appeals’ judgment below and dismiss the appeal. The parties have now filed a Notice of Settlement Rendering the Appeal Moot, which states that the parties “have entered into a settlement not conditioned on further action of this Court.” In accordance with our January 24, 2025 order, we hereby vacate the Court of Appeals’ judgment below and dismiss this appeal as moot. All the Justices concur. SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA Clerk’s Office, Atlanta I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written. , Clerk 2 ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the opinion above and is not part of the court's opinion. Quote the opinion, not the summary. The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed a certiorari appeal between a property owner and DeKalb County's tax assessors after the parties reached an unconditional settlement, and it wiped out the Court of Appeals' earlier ruling in the case. ### Plain-language summary 4918 Covington Hwy, LLC had appealed a tax assessment dispute with the DeKalb County Tax Assessors, and the Supreme Court of Georgia had agreed to review the case. The parties reached a settlement, but their first attempt to end the appeal was conditioned on the Supreme Court of Georgia's cooperation, so the court refused to treat that as a valid withdrawal and told them to come back only if they settled without any strings attached to the court's own action. The parties then filed a new notice saying they had reached a settlement that did not depend on anything further from the court. Because that made the appeal moot, meaning there was no longer a live dispute for the court to decide, the Supreme Court of Georgia vacated (erased) the Court of Appeals' earlier judgment in the case and dismissed the appeal. ### Holding, as summarized Because the parties reached a settlement not conditioned on any further action by the Supreme Court of Georgia, the appeal is moot, and the court vacated the Court of Appeals' judgment below and dismissed the appeal. ### Disposition Court of Appeals' judgment vacated; appeal dismissed as moot. All the Justices concur. ### Why it matters The order shows how the Supreme Court of Georgia handles settlements reached while a case is pending before it, requiring settlements to be unconditional before it will dismiss an appeal, which matters for litigants and tax authorities trying to close out disputes through negotiated agreements rather than continued litigation. > The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (1,193 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S24G1350.md?full=1