Johnson v. Stills

563 S.E.2d 141, 254 Ga. App. 430, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 502, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 172
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 11, 2002
DocketA01A2174; A02A0148
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 563 S.E.2d 141 (Johnson v. Stills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Stills, 563 S.E.2d 141, 254 Ga. App. 430, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 502, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 172 (Ga. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Ruffin, Judge.

These two appeals concern a Houston County Juvenile Court’s order terminating Steven Trainer’s parental rights in B. A. S. and a Fulton County Superior Court’s order granting the petition of Terry and Christal Stills to adopt the child. The case has a long and contentious history that is partially discussed by the Supreme Court of [431]*431Georgia in Stills v. Johnson.1 We consolidated the two appeals, which share a common background, to finally resolve the issues and bring certainty and stability to the lives of the child and the other parties. For reasons that follow, we affirm the termination order and the order granting the Stillses’ adoption petition.

As revealed in Stills, B. A. S. was born out of wedlock to Cassandra Stills and Trainer in February 1994, only days after Trainer was arrested and charged with committing numerous crimes. Trainer was eventually sentenced to serve two consecutive ten-year sentences,2 but legitimated the child. Cassandra Stills died in August 1997, and at that time her mother, Doris Stills, and Trainer began contending for custody of B. A. S.

After Cassandra died, B. A. S. went to live with Doris Stills, who was appointed his temporary legal guardian by the Probate Court of Houston County. Trainer objected to the guardianship, however, and attempted to transfer custody to his mother, Gertrude E. Johnson, a New Jersey resident. To accomplish this goal, Trainer executed a document purporting to relinquish his parental rights to Johnson and his sister3 and filed a petition in Houston County Superior Court to transfer physical custody of B. A. S. from Doris Stills to Johnson. Johnson was later added as a plaintiff in that custody action.

While these proceedings were pending, Doris Stills died of cancer, and B. A. S. went to live in Texas with Cassandra’s brother and sister-in-law, Terry and Christal Stills. Terry Stills was substituted as the defendant in Trainer’s custody action, and, on June 21, 1999, Stills filed a petition to terminate Trainer’s parental rights in B. A. S. that was eventually transferred to the Houston County Juvenile Court.4

B. A. S. continued living with the Stillses until approximately June 29, 1999, when the Houston County Superior Court granted Trainer’s custody petition and awarded custody of the child to Johnson. Thereafter, B. A. S. went to live with Johnson in New Jersey.

Terry Stills subsequently appealed the Houston County Superior Court’s custody order, and on July 10, 2000, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed.5 That Court held that the Houston County Supe[432]*432rior Court erred in concluding that Trainer’s purported relinquishment of parental rights vested in Johnson a superior legal right to custody of B. A. S.6 The Court also ruled that the proper standard for determining custody was not the fitness of the custodian, as applied by the trial court, but the best interest of the child.7 The Court remanded the matter back to the Houston County Superior Court for a redetermination of custody under the proper standard. In its opinion, the Court noted

that there remains pending a petition filed by Terry Stills in the juvenile court to terminate the parental rights of Steven Trainer. Should the juvenile court conclude that in accordance with the standards set forth in OCGA § [15-11-94] there is clear and convincing evidence of Steven Trainer’s inability or failure to render proper parental care to the child, and that it" would be in the best interest of the child to terminate Steven Trainer’s parental rights, then Trainer’s attempt to relinquish his parental power to his mother by voluntary contract would be of no effect. On remand, the trial court should first resolve the termination proceeding before finally adjudicating the custody issue.8

On July 21, 2000, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Stills v. Johnson, Terry and Christal Stills, who had relocated to Fulton County, petitioned the Fulton County Superior Court to adopt B. A. S. At some point during the year 2000, Johnson filed a competing adoption petition in a New Jersey court and also intervened in the Stillses’ adoption action.

Seeking finality to the various actions, the Houston County Superior Court judge presiding over the remanded custody action contacted both the New Jersey court and the Fulton County court so that the three judges could determine the most appropriate forum for deciding the custody and adoption disputes. The New Jersey court subsequently dismissed Johnson’s adoption action, finding that Georgia was a more appropriate venue. The Houston County Superior Court likewise transferred venue of Trainer and Johnson’s custody action to Fulton County Superior Court so that it could be consolidated with the Stillses’ adoption action1.

On September 25, 2000, the Houston County Juvenile Court entered an order terminating Trainer’s parental rights in B. A. S., and on June 19, 2001, the Fulton County Superior Court granted the [433]*433Stillses’ petition to adopt B. A. S. In Case No. A01A2174, Trainer, pro se, appeals the Houston County Juvenile Court’s termination order,9 and in Case No. A02A0148, Johnson appeals the Fulton County Superior Court’s adoption order. In addition to these two appeals, the parties have filed numerous motions. Although many of these motions are now moot, we will address them, as necessary, in our discussion of the respective appeals.

Case No. A01A2174

In challenging the juvenile court’s termination order, Trainer contends that the court lacked personal and subject matter jurisdiction, that the court’s order was unsupported by sufficient factual findings, and that the termination violated his fundamental right to raise B. A. S. Finding no merit in Trainer’s assertions, we affirm.

1. Before turning to Trainer’s enumerations of error, we must address Stills’ motion to dismiss the appeal. Stills argues that Trainer’s appeal should be dismissed because Trainer directly appealed the court’s order and, as an incarcerated litigant, the Prison Litigation Reform Act10 required him to file an application for discretionary appeal.11 We disagree. The Act requires a prisoner to file an application for discretionary appeal only if he filed the underlying action.12 Because Trainer did not file the termination petition at issue here, the Act did not apply, and Stills’ motion to dismiss is denied.

2. In his first enumeration of error, Trainer asserts that the Houston County Juvenile Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to decide the termination petition, that the court’s order is void because it fails to recite sufficient facts supporting its subject matter jurisdiction, and that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over him. We disagree.

Subject matter jurisdiction over the termination petition was conferred by OCGA § 15-11-28 (a) (2) (C), which provides that juvenile courts

shall have exclusive original jurisdiction over juvenile matters and shall be the sole court for initiating action . . .

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Related

In Re BAS
563 S.E.2d 141 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
563 S.E.2d 141, 254 Ga. App. 430, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 502, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 172, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-stills-gactapp-2002.