After an earlier interlocutory appeal,1 Derek Canas’s action against the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia d/b/a Medical College of Georgia Hospitals and Clinics “the Board” and MCG Health, Inc. “MCGHI” remains pending in the Superior Court of Glynn County. This appeal concerns the trial court’s order denying the Board’s motion to dismiss Canas’s administrative failure to warn claim.2 In the appealed order, the trial court determined that the Board is not immune from suit on the basis of sovereign immunity. The Board appeals, contending that Canas’s claim must be dismissed, either because his claim accrued before January 1, 1991 such that the Georgia Tort Claims Act does not apply, and he failed to show that the Board waived sovereign immunity by purchasing liability insurance, or, alternatively, because he failed to satisfy the ante-litem notice requirements of the Act. As explained below, we affirm. 1. As Canas has moved to dismiss this interlocutory appeal based on the Board’s failure to comply with the interlocutory appeal procedures set forth in OCGA § 5-6-34 b, our first consideration is whether we have jurisdiction over this appeal.3 In its notice of appeal and its response to Canas’s motion to dismiss this appeal, the Board contends that this is an authorized appeal from a “collateral order.”
“A necessary prerequisite for a direct appeal . . . is that the judgment or order appealed from be final or otherwise appealable.” Footnote omitted. Appellate Handbook for StateStateGeorgiaLawyers, § 5-1, p. 100 2007-2008 ed..4 A judgment is directly appealable as a final judgment “where the case is no longer pending in the court below, except as provided in Code Section 5-6-35 concerning cases requiring an application for appeal.” OCGA § 5-6-34 a 1. A trial court’s order is a final judgment within the meaning of OCGA § 5-6-34 a 1 “where it leaves no issues remaining to be resolved, constitutes the court’s final ruling on the merits of the action, and leaves the parties with no further recourse in the trial court.” Miller v. Miller , 282 StateStateGa.164, 165 646 SE2d 469 2007. In this case, the order appealed from, which denied the Board’s motion to dismiss Canas’s administrative failure to warn claim, is not a final judgment. Nor is such an order made directly appealable by statute. Generally, where an appellant fails to comply with the interlocutory appeal procedures set forth in OCGA § 5-6-34 b and an interlocutory ruling is not otherwise appealable, this Court lacks jurisdiction over a direct appeal filed from an interlocutory ruling and must dismiss it.5
