Remarks of Presiding Judge J. D. Smith of the Court of Appeals of Georgia on the occasion of the Proclamation Ceremony January 24, 2006.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS

A hundred years ago, the state Capitol building stood alone on Capitol Hill. At that time, none of today's many other state government buildings existed. And at that time, the Supreme Court of Georgia also stood alone, as Georgia's one and only appellate court. But by then, that court's caseload had already grown far too large for effective management, and the need for relief was widely recognized.

Serious efforts to establish a second appellate court began in 1895. Eleven years of debate and study followed, but then in 1906, important events happened quickly. First, the necessary legislation was passed in July to submit to the electorate a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing the new court. That amendment was ratified by the voters at the general election, which back then was in early October. Elections of the new judges followed just a month later, in November. In this first, wide-open Court of Appeals election, the three candidates who received the most votes would become the court's first judges.

Sixteen candidates ran for election to those first three judgeships, and the three winning candidates ( or maybe I should say the three survivors) were these men:

Benjamin Harvey Hill

Richard B. Russell, Sr.

Arthur G. Powell

Powell was an outstanding attorney who later wrote a very highly-regarded memoir of his career as a lawyer and judge.

Both the other two names have associations with the U.S. Senate

Hill was the son of a U.S. Senator of the same name and a highly respected lawyer in his own right.

Richard B. Russell, Sr. was the father of Georgia Governor and U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. Judge Russell is the only person in the history of the state to serve both as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia and Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court.

After the elections, the new judges met at the Capitol for their first day of work on January 2, 1907. And guess what? On that very first day, there was a dissent!

The Court was created to relieve the workload of the Supreme Court, and from the beginning, it has certainly succeeded in that mission. Growing caseloads brought about expansion of the court to six judges in 1916, after less than a decade of operation.

For the first 50 years of its existence, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court both were housed in the state Capitol. They shared a courtroom that now is Room 341, the House Appropriations Room.

In 1956, both courts moved across the street from the Capitol to the State Judicial Building. So, coincidentally, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of that building.

Those growing caseloads brought about further expansion of the Court of Appeals over the years. Now the Court has twelve judges. Each case goes before one of the Court's four three-judge panels, and the membership of those panels is changed each year.

Unfortunately, from the time the Court expanded from 10 judges to 12, we have never been able to have all twelve located in the Judicial Building. Currently, two judges have offices in a downtown office building. The court needs to expand again, but the need for additional office space is even more critical right now.

Again, the Court's mission from its inception has been to relieve the workload of the Georgia Supreme Court. It has succeeded so well in that mission that now some 86% of the state's total appellate business is handled by the Court of Appeals. On a per judge basis, the Court, literally

for decades, has carried one of the very heaviest caseloads in the country – and in many years , far and away the heaviest in the country.

What's more, there is no backlog of cases. Georgia's two appellate courts are unique in having an absolute, hard and fast deadline for decision in each and every case, a deadline that has been a part of the state constitution for many, many years. While courts in many other states have appeals that remain pending for three years or more, that just does not happen in Georgia. One of the proudest boasts of our Court is that in nearly a century of operation, it has always met that deadline.

We begin a year-long celebration of the Court's first 100 years. Part of the celebration will take place in a way that's very appropriate for our " blue collar, working court", since we will have oral argument sessions specially scheduled at several sites around the state. There will be a number of other events, all carrying out the Centennial observation's theme, "A CENTURY OF SERVING JUSTICE." Those of us who work on the court hope you and others around the state will agree that it has done just that – that through these ten decades, it has served the people of Georgia and the cause of justice very well indeed. We thank you for supporting your Court of Appeals and for joining us to day to celebrate this milestone in our state's history.