Hello, I am a landlord. I filed and won a dispossessory judgment against a tenant for late-payment and non-payment of rent.

On the 8th day after the judgment (the earliest possible in Georgia) I went to get the writ of repossession to effect the eviction and discovered the tenant has appealed the judgment.
The original trial and judgment took place in the county Magistrate court but the appeal was filed in Federal District court. I've never had a tenant appeal a judgment so I'm unfamiliar with how to proceed.

My questions are:

1. Can I expect to be formally notified by mail of the appeal or do I have to proactively request information about the appeal?

2. Is there anything I should be doing or should I let the process play out (my case is slam dunk and so I suspect this is a stalling tactic)?

2. Finally, according to Georgia law, a tenant that appeals an adverse judgment SHOULD pay rent to the court during the appeal (see http://statutes.laws.com/georgia/title-44/chapter-7/article-3/44-7-54). However, I've read GeorgiaLegalAid.org | A guide to free and low-cost legal aid, assistance and services in Georgia (http://www.georgialegalaid.org/resource/eviction-answers-to-common-questions?ref=90pka) (see last entry at bottom of page) that may not be the case and I may have to file a motion asking they pay rent to the court during the appeal. If so, how do I file this motion and in which court
(the original magistrate court or the federal district court)?

Thanks in advance for your time.

appeal was filed in Federal District court

Sounds entirely bogus. The Federal District Court doesn't (as far as I can imagine) have jurisdiction to hear such an appeal. Proceed to enforce your state court judgment. Unless there is a stay on appeal (and normally a bond would have to be filed to get one of those), the filing of an appeal doesn't stop your enforcement of your judgment.

Thank you AK lawyer for your response. Your contributions to this forum are invaluable!

If possible, I humbly ask you take a look at this link, sections/questions #6 and #25 which relates directly to my situation: F.A.Q – Georgia Landlord Tenant Law (http://woodandmeredith.com/f-a-q-georgia-landlord-tenant-law/)

Based on that link, I believe there is a 'stay on appeal' in Georgia when a tenant appeals, since it allows the tenants to stay in the property until the appeal is resolved.

However, If that is the case, I would like to file a motion to require them to pay rent into the courts registry until the appeal/case is resolved ( a helpful lady at the courthouse told me tenants routinely do this as a stalling tactic and that the appeals are almost always denied). See #25 at the link provided.

My question then, is where can I get information on filing a motion to require the tenants to pay rent into the court's registry during the appeal process? I realize you may not be familiar with Georgia law, but I imagine motion filing is pretty standard everywhere. I'll do the work if you can point me in the right direction and provide any caveats.

Regards.

I think you are missing part of what AK said. I agree that Federal District Court would not hear an appeal of an eviction case. But I'm assuming you found out about this case from the magistrate court when you went for writ of possession. So something was filed in the fed court. You need to be informed about that case. The only thing I can think of is a discrimination suit. That means that the GA laws you cite may not apply. It also means that you should continue to prosecute your eviction case as much as the local court allows.

Thank you Scott.

I determined as much after more research. To summarize your and AK's assertion: Even if the tenant filed a (specious) claim in Federal District Court, it should not impact me proceeding in the local courts to obtain a writ of possession?

At this moment, I have not been notified of the substance of the federal district court filing. I have obtained the case number and will get details today. I'll report back just to keep those following this thread informed.

In the meantime I've perused the judgment (in my favor) more carefully, and it orders the tenant to to pay into the court's registry the amount of rent owed to me at time of judgement AND any future rents as they come due during appeal. So it appears I do not need to file a motion to compel this.

According to GA law, failure to pay these monies into the court's registry should result in an immediate issuance of a writ of possession (my main goal right now, as I want the tenants out of the house). I will deal with the money issues through the normal civil/magistrate courts later.

Therefore, my immediate plan is to determine if the tenants have complied with the payment requirement and if not seek to have the writ issued.

An UPDATE:

I've determined the item filed in Federal District Court is a Petition for Indigency. As I understand it, this relates to the defendants (the tenants in my case) inability to pay filing fees and attorney costs, and should NOT have a bearing on me being able to obtain and execute the writ of possession thus allowing me to remove them from my property.

Is my assertion correct?

Thanks in advance.

The petition for indigency would need to be part of another filing. Basically it says I want to file for something, but I can't afford the fees involved and asks for those fees to be waived. Proof of indigency would need to be provided.

The tenant has to obtain a stay of the eviction action. To do so, they have to provide reasonable grounds to overrule the court's judgement. Until a stay is issued, the GA court should be allowed to proceed with the eviction.

Thank you AK lawyer for your response. Your contributions to this forum are invaluable!

If possible, I humbly ask you take a look at this link, sections/questions #6 and #25 which relates directly to my situation: F.A.Q – Georgia Landlord Tenant Law (http://woodandmeredith.com/f-a-q-georgia-landlord-tenant-law/)

...

Both #6 & # 25 relate to appeals to Georgia state courts, not federal court.

I would ignore the Federal filing; and the Magistrate Court should do the same. As noted, it is specious. If necessary, obtain the services of an attorney licensed to practice in the Federal District Court for your state to have the Federal filing dismissed.

@ScottGem, you are correct. I've discovered the indigence petition also accompanied a petition for removal to Federal Court (I suspected this all along).

@AKlawyer, the Judge I spoke with said technically this is not an appeal (as an appeal would require the tenant to pay rent to the court during the appeal) and that he could not proceed to granting the writ of possession until the Federal Court has ruled on the removal petition.

The judge also said he fully expects the Federal court to deny the petition and remand back to state or magistrate court. This is a stalling tactic pure and simple and I suspect my 'indigent' tenant is getting legal help from someone (which is fine, this is America after all).

At this point, I'm less concerned about the unpaid rent and more concerned about getting these tenants out of the property. Therefore, in the meantime, I'm going to do three things to turn up the heat.

1. file a claim in small claims court for unpaid rent and fees and if allowed, future rents (is this allowed?).

2. File another dispossessory using this month's unpaid rent as a basis. I've seen nothing in the law that prevents me from filing multiple dispossesories for multiple independent violations of the lease. Is this allowed?

3. Optionally file a motion to remand or dismiss the tenant's petition to remove.

I can do this as time is not an issue with me (I'm sort of retired), the court house is close to me and the cost to do this is less than hiring an attorney (at least for the small claims and dispossessory. The motion filing may be a different story and I may take AK's advice).

Any comments are appreciated and I thank you for your insight and time.

Regards.

I would start with option 3 and ask the court to expedite a ruling on that petition on the grounds that the tenant is interfering with your right to income from your property, that the Federal court has no jurisdiction and the tenant is just trying to delay getting evicted.

I think the judge you spoke to is correct, that the Federal court will deny the motion to remove because it has no jurisdiction. You just need to try and get the feds to move more quickly. Courts do not like to be taken advantage of and they should see quickly that this was just a delaying tactic.

I would wait to see what happens with that petition before using Option 1. I don't think Option 2 is really worthwhile.

Thanks ScottGem. More than likely I'll follow your advice.

The only reason I listed option 2 is because the tenant's new job requires he be away from home often and I'm banking that he has little leeway in asking for time off.

In Georgia if a defendant does not show for a dispossessory, I get a default judgement and writ issued immediately. Default judgements in Georgia can not be appealed either.

I don't like this approach, but if the tenant wants to play games I have to keep my options open.

Question regarding option 2: The tenants wife is a signatory to the lease but I specifically name the husband in the filing. Does she have standing to represent him if he can't make it (she is not an attorney)? I don't know where to look for case law regarding this type of situation.

Thanks again.

Brock, if his wife is not a party to the lawsuit she cannot open her mouth (except as a witness when called at an evidentiary hearing). And in any case she cannot represent her husband or anybody else. She is not an attorney- end of story. You don't need case law for that.