Cynthia Morris v. Ricy Weldon Morris, Jr

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,_________________ July 20, 2012

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A12D0441. CYNTHIA MORRIS v. RICKY WELDON MORRIS, JR.

Cynthia Morris seeks discretionary review of the trial court’s order finding her in contempt for failing to comply with a visitation order pertaining to the parties’ minor children.1 Under OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11), “[a]ll judgments or orders in child custody cases including . . . awarding or refusing to change child custody” are directly appealable. A party seeking to challenge a child custody order, therefore, may file a direct appeal. See Cohen v. Cohen, 300 Ga. App. 7, 8 (1) (684 SE2d 94) (2009); Taylor v. Curl, 298 Ga. App. 45 (679 SE2d 80) (2009). And visitation “is considered a custody issue.” Daniels v. Barnes, 289 Ga. App. 897, 899 n.1 (658 SE2d 472) (2008); see also OCGA § 19-9-41 (4) (defining “child custody proceeding” as “a proceeding in which legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child is an issue.”). Thus, the order at issue here is directly appealable.

This Court will grant an otherwise timely discretionary application if the lower court’s order is directly appealable and the applicant has not already filed a notice of appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Accordingly, this application is hereby GRANTED. Cynthia Morris shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal with the trial court. If, however, she has already filed a notice of appeal, she need not file a second notice. The clerk of the trial court is DIRECTED to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals.

1 In Morris v. Morris, 309 Ga. App. 387 (710 SE2d 601) (2011), we affirmed the trial court’s order legitimating the children but vacated portions of the court’s order pertaining to visitation. On remand, the court entered a revised visitation order.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 07/20/2012

Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,_________________ 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.