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Heiskell v. Roberts

Judges appointed to fill vacancies on appellate, superior and state courts do not serve out the "unexpired term" of their predecessors and thus are not entitled to the same compensation as their predecessors.

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Bruce Roberts filed suit against Walker County and its sole commissioner, Bebe Heiskell collectively, “Appellants”, claiming that the county underpaid him for the 15 months that he served as judge of the State Court of Walker County. Appellants denied any underpayment, denied Roberts’s request to pay his legal fees in connection with the case, and filed counterclaims alleging among other things that the county actually overpaid Roberts each month and was entitled to reimbursement for the overpayments. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court granted Roberts’s mandamus claim and ordered the county to pay him $78,878.55 in unpaid salary; dismissed Appellants’ counterclaims as barred by judicial immunity; and ordered the county to pay Roberts’s attorney fees.

As explained below, the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on the mandamus claim to Roberts instead of to Appellants, in dismissing Appellants’ counterclaim for reimbursement, and in granting attorney fees to Roberts based on these erroneous rulings. However, the trial court properly dismissed Appellants’ other counterclaims based on judicial immunity and correctly ruled that the county could be required to pay attorney fees to Roberts under OCGA § 9-15-14 based on the dismissed counterclaims. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s judgment in part and reverse it in part, and we remand the case for the entry of a more limited attorney fees award and to allow Appellants the opportunity to pursue their counterclaim for reimbursement.

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