William Paul Bradley Jr v. F. Gates Peed, Senior Judge, Bulloch County

Court of Appeals
of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________
June 16, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26O0015. WILLIAM PAUL BRADLEY JR. v. F. GATES PEED, SENIOR
JUDGE, BULLOCH COUNTY.

Senior Judge F. Gates Peed of the Superior Court of Bulloch County denied
William Paul Bradley Jr.’s motion to recuse in this domestic relations case without
referring the matter to another judge for disposition.1 Bradley filed motions for
reconsideration, for a certificate of immediate review, and to stay the proceedings, but
Judge Peed apparently has not yet ruled on them. Bradley now petitions this Court for
original mandamus relief, asking us to either (1) require Judge Peed to refer the recusal
motion to a different superior court judge for disposition; (2) require Judge Peed to
certify his order denying the recusal motion for immediate review; or (3) direct that
this case be reassigned to a disinterested judge appointed by the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Georgia. Because Bradley has not shown that this is one of those
rare cases requiring the deployment of our limited powers of original mandamus, we
dismiss the petition.
“Generally, the superior courts of this state have the power, in proper cases, to
issue process in the nature of mandamus, prohibition, specific performance, quo
warranto, and injunction, and hence the need to resort to the appellate courts for such
relief by petition filed in the appellate courts will be extremely rare.” Brown v.

1
Bradley filed two recusal motions, the first of which was denied for procedural
reasons. This petition concerns the second motion.
Johnson, 251 Ga. 436, 436 (306 SE2d 655) (1983); see also Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI,
Sec. I, Par. IV. As the Supreme Court recently made clear, an appellate court’s
authority to issue such writs “is connected only to such powers as necessary in aid of
its jurisdiction or to protect or effectuate its judgments. It does not grant jurisdiction
to this Court to issue process as an original matter wholly unconnected to its appellate
jurisdiction.” Arnold v. Alexander, 321 Ga. 330, 334(1) (914 SE2d 311) (2025)
(punctuation omitted). Thus, except in the rarest of cases, the procedure to be
followed before seeking to invoke this Court’s original mandamus jurisdiction is to file
the petition in the appropriate lower court first. See Graham v. Cavender, 252 Ga. 123,
123 (311 SE2d 832) (1984); Expedia, Inc. v. City of Columbus, 305 Ga. App. 450,
455(2)(b) (699 SE2d 600) (2010).
Bradley has not followed this procedure. He claims that filing a mandamus
petition in the superior court is “procedurally unavailable” because “[a] court cannot
issue mandamus against itself or against one of its co-equal judges.” But the Supreme
Court determined that the appearance of a conflict under these circumstances “is
misleading” and that “[s]uch petition may be filed in the appropriate superior court.”
Brown, 251 Ga. at 437. “Being the respondent, the superior court judge will disqualify,
another superior court judge will be appointed to hear and determine the matter, and
the final decision then may be appealed to [this Court] for review.” Id.
Bradley also argues that we should issue mandamus now in aid of our
jurisdiction to avoid having “to later undo extensive proceedings” occurring after
Judge Peed should have recused. But “recusal questions are fully reviewable on appeal
from a final judgment[.]” Murphy v. Murphy, 322 Ga. App. 829, 832 (747 SE2d 21)
(2013). There is no need for us to act now to preserve our jurisdiction.
In sum, this is not one of the extremely rare instances in which this Court is
authorized to exercise its limited original jurisdiction. Rather, Bradley must first
obtain a ruling from the superior court on the issues he raises here before we will
exercise our jurisdiction. See Brown, 251 Ga. at 436-37.
Accordingly, this original petition is hereby DISMISSED. Bradley’s emergency
motion to stay the superior court proceedings is DENIED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia
Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________
06/16/2026
I certify that the above is a true extract from
the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
Witness my signature and the seal of said court
hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.