Kenneth Hogan v. Mary Dale Brown

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,__________________ May 02, 2013 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A13D0327. KENNETH HOGAN et al. v. MARY DALE BROWN et al. Mary Dale Brown and James Hubert Lee, the paternal grandparents of minor child K. A. L., filed a petition for grandparent visitation. Kenneth and Kim Hogan, who previously adopted the child, were named as respondents. After the court entered an amended final order on the petition, the Hogans filed this application for discretionary appeal. 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 directly appealable. The effect of this broad language is that a party seeking to appeal any order in a child custody case is no longer required to comply with 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). Under Georgia law, “[v]isitation is considered a custody issue.” Daniels v. Barnes, 289 Ga. App. 897 , 899 n. 1 ( 658 SE2d 472 ) (2008); see also OCGA § 199-41 (4) (defining “child custody proceeding” as “a proceeding in which legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child is in issue.”). Thus, the order that the Hogans seek to appeal is directly appealable. This Court will grant an otherwise timely discretionary application if the lower court’s order is subject to direct appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Accordingly, this application is hereby GRANTED. The Hogans shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal with the trial court. The clerk of the trial court is DIRECTED to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals. Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 05/02/2013 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.