Margaret Hamner v. James E. Turpen, Jr

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,_________________ June 05, 2012

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A12I0254. MARGARET HAMNER v. JAMES E. TURPEN, JR.

James Turpen filed a motion for contempt in Gwinnett County Superior Court against his ex-wife, Margaret Hamner, alleging that she had violated provisions of the parties’ divorce decree pertaining to custody and visitation of their minor child. Hamner then filed a complaint against Turpen for modification of custody and visitation. The cases were consolidated. Upon motion by Turpen, the trial court entered an order transferring the cases to Rabun County Superior Court. Hamner seeks interlocutory review of the transfer order. Under OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11), “[a]ll judgments or orders in child custody cases including, but not limited to, awarding or refusing to change child custody” are now directly appealable. The effect of this broad language is that a party seeking to appeal any order in a child custody case – even a non-final order such as the one at issue here – is no longer required to comply with either the interlocutory appeal procedure of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) or the discretionary appeal procedure of OCGA § 5-6-35 (a) (2). 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). Thus, the order that Hamner seeks to appeal is directly appealable. “This Court will grant a timely application for interlocutory review if the order complained of is subject to direct appeal and the applicants have not otherwise filed a notice of appeal.” Spivey v. Hembree, 268 Ga. App. 485, 486 n.1 (602 SE2d 246) (2004). Hamner’s application for interlocutory appeal is therefore GRANTED. She shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal in the superior court. The clerk of the superior court is directed to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to this Court.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 06/05/2012 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.