In re R. J. A.

365 Ga.App. 118

877 S.E.2d 673

In the INTEREST OF R. J. A., a child.

A22A1062

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

August 22, 2022

Crawford & Boyle, Eric C. Crawford, Monroe, for Appellant.

Patsy A. Austin-Gatson, District Attorney, Brandon Mark Delfunt, Cora Mae Fisher, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

McFadden, Presiding Judge.

This appeal presents an unusual situation. Essentially, both a superior court and a juvenile court have declined to exercise jurisdiction over the adjudication of allegations that R. J. A. committed offenses, including rape, when he was 16 years old. Although the superior court had exclusive original jurisdiction over the trial of the case, see OCGA § 15-11-560 (b) (4), it transferred the case to the juvenile court pursuant to OCGA § 17-7-50.1 (b), which requires a superior court to transfer a case against a detained child to the juvenile court if the grand jury does not return an indictment against the child within a specified period of time. But the juvenile court concluded that R. J. A. had not been detained for that entire period of time and, finding no other statutory basis upon which to exercise jurisdiction, it transferred the case back to the superior court. R. J. A. directly appeals from the juvenile court's transfer order.

Although neither court made an express finding about jurisdiction, the juvenile court's jurisdiction is at the heart of this case. As detailed below, we find that the juvenile court was authorized to assess its jurisdiction, that there was no statutory basis for the juvenile court's exercise of jurisdiction over the adjudication of the allegations against R. J. A., and that under these circumstances the juvenile court did not err in transferring the case back to the superior court. So we affirm.

1. Procedural history.

On March 1, 2019, R. J. A. was arrested for a rape that allegedly occurred the prior September, when he was 16 years old. He was initially denied bond, but on April 11, 2019, the superior court granted him a bond that included a special condition requiring him to "immediately enroll in and provide proof of an ankle GPS monitored home confinement monitoring system." The bond order further provided that R. J. A. "shall only be allowed to leave his home for the purposes of school, work, necessary legal and medical appointments and one religious service per week."

On October 23, 2019, a grand jury brought a bill of indictment against R. J. A., charging him with rape and with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. On December 16, 2019, R. J. A. moved to transfer the case to juvenile court. He argued in that motion that the superior court was required to transfer the case under OCGA § 17-7-50.1, because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged offenses and the state had not indicted him within 180 days of being detained.

R. J. A.’s transfer motion remained pending until September 7, 2021, when the superior court entered an order granting it. In its entirety, that order stated:

Defendant having filed a motion to transfer the above-styled case to juvenile court for the State's failure to present the case to the grand jury within 180 days as required pursuant to OCGA § 17-7-50.1 (a), and the State having consented to said transfer, the Court hereby, GRANTS, Defendant's Motion to Transfer, and the Clerk shall transfer the above-styled case to the Gwinnett County Juvenile Court pursuant to OCGA § 17-7-50.1 (b).

On October 14, 2021, the state filed a delinquency petition against R. J. A. in the juvenile court. But on October 26, 2021, the state filed a motion to transfer the case back to the superior court, arguing that the superior court had exclusive jurisdiction over the trial of the case and that OCGA § 17-7-50.1 did not permit the transfer because R. J. A. had not been detained for 180 days. The juvenile court agreed with the state. After an evidentiary hearing, the juvenile court found that the superior court's transfer of the case under OCGA § 17-7-50.1 was "voided as a matter of law" and that there was no other statutory basis for the transfer. So on November 29, 2021, the juvenile court granted the state's motion and transferred the case back to superior court.

2. Appellate jurisdiction.

As an initial matter, we have jurisdiction over this appeal under OCGA § 15-11-564 (a), which "allows for a direct [appeal], rather than an interlocutory appeal, in a case in which juveniles filed a direct appeal from a juvenile court's order granting the [s]tate's motion to transfer their delinquency cases to superior court." In the Interest of B. B. , 359 Ga. App. 628 (1), 859 S.E.2d 575 (2021). See In the Interest of K. S. , 303 Ga. 542, 545-546, 814 S.E.2d 324 (2018).

The state argues that OCGA § 15-11-564 (a) does not apply because the order on appeal was not, in the state's words, "a traditional transfer of the case" under OCGA §§ 15-11-561 and 15-11-562, which pertain to a juvenile court's optional transfer of a delinquency action over which it had concurrent jurisdiction with the superior court. Instead, the juvenile court transferred the case back to the superior court on what were essentially jurisdictional grounds under OCGA § 15-11-560, which establishes the jurisdiction of superior courts and juvenile courts in cases involving felony allegations against juveniles. The state makes no meaningful argument for why we should exclude a transfer for lack of jurisdiction from the direct appellate review permitted in OCGA § 15-11-564 (a).

3. Analysis.

In their appellate briefs, R. J. A. and the state focus many of their arguments on whether the juvenile court had the authority to review or void the superior court's order. We do not adopt that framing of the issue. The juvenile court was not reviewing the superior court's order; it was assessing its own jurisdiction. See generally State v. Armendariz , 316 Ga. App. 394, 396-397 (1), 729 S.E.2d 538 (2012) (explaining that the procedure established in OCGA § 17-7-50.1 pertains to jurisdiction). So in our view, the correctness of the juvenile court's decision to transfer the case back to the superior court breaks down into three more fundamental questions: Could the juvenile court decide for itself whether it had jurisdiction to adjudicate the claims against R. J. A.? If so, did the juvenile court lack jurisdiction to adjudicate those claims? And finally, if it lacked jurisdiction, was the juvenile court authorized to transfer the case back to the superior court? We answer each of these questions affirmatively.

(a) The juvenile court could decide its jurisdiction.

"[I]t is always the duty of a court to inquire into its jurisdiction." Gutierrez v. State , 290 Ga. 643, 644, 723 S.E.2d 658 (2012) (citations and punctuation omitted). Contrary to R. J. A.’s argument, the juvenile court was not bound by any ruling of the superior court as to the juvenile court's jurisdiction. "As between courts neither of which has corrective power over the other, one can not render a judgment binding the other to assume jurisdiction of a case when it has none." Burgess v. Nabers , 122 Ga. App. 445, 448 (3), 177 S.E.2d 266 (1970) (citation and punctuation omitted) (physical precedent only). Accord Subers v. Hirschensohn , 33 Ga. App. 752, 756 (3), 127 S.E. 825 (1925).

(b) The juvenile court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the delinquency charges.

"The juvenile court is a court of special and limited jurisdiction, having only those powers given to it by the legislature." Bonner v. State , 302 Ga. App. 57, 59, 690 S.E.2d 216 (2010) (citation and punctuation omitted). Under the Georgia Constitution, superior courts have "exclusive jurisdiction over trials in felony cases, except in the case of juvenile offenders as provided by law. " Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. IV, Par. I (emphasis supplied).

Our Juvenile Code gives the juvenile court concurrent jurisdiction with the superior court in most cases involving felony allegations against a child. See OCGA § 15-11-560 (a). But the Juvenile Code does not give the juvenile court concurrent jurisdiction over cases involving allegations of rape against a teenaged child. Instead, it gives the superior court exclusive original jurisdiction over the trial of a "child 13 to 17 years of age who is alleged to have committed ... [r]ape[.]" OCGA § 15-11-560 (b) (4). So unless otherwise provided by law, the superior court has exclusive jurisdiction over the rape charge against R. J. A., and the juvenile court cannot exercise jurisdiction to adjudicate that charge.

As the Juvenile Court recognized in its transfer order, the juvenile code permits cases over which the superior court has exclusive jurisdiction to be transferred to juvenile court under certain situations that do not apply here. See OCGA §§ 15-11-560 (d) (permitting a district attorney, before indictment, to decline to prosecute a case in the superior court and instead cause a delinquency petition to be filed in juvenile court); 15-11-560 (e) (1) (permitting the superior court to transfer to the juvenile court certain cases over which it has exclusive jurisdiction, but excluding from this authority cases involving allegations of rape).

Instead, the superior court based the transfer of this case to juvenile court on a provision of criminal procedure, OCGA § 17-7-50.1, which limits the time of presentment of a case against a child to the grand jury. It states: "Any child who is charged with a crime that is within the jurisdiction of the superior court, as provided in Code Section 15-11-560 ..., who is detained shall within 180 days of the date of detention be entitled to have the charge against him or her presented to the grand jury." OCGA § 17-7-50.1 (a). It further provides: "If the grand jury does not return a true bill of indictment against a detained child within the time limitations set forth in subsection (a) of this Code section, the detained child's case shall be transferred to the juvenile court and shall proceed...