Christopher Drew Thompson v. Vicki McCarty

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 10, 2019

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A19D0476. CHRISTOPHER DREW THOMPSON v. VICKI MCCARTY.

The parties were divorced in 2013. Vicki McCarty initiated the instant action in 2014 when she filed a petition seeking to hold Christopher Drew Thompson in contempt and to modify his visitation privileges. In April 2019, the trial court entered a final decision that, among other things, ordered that Thompson have no visitation or physical contact, directly or indirectly, with his minor children, except under certain circumstances. Thompson then filed the instant application for discretionary appeal. Under OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11), direct appeals are permitted from “[a]ll judgments or orders in child custody cases awarding, refusing to change, or modifying child custody or holding or declining to hold persons in contempt of such child custody judgment or orders.” See Moore v. Moore-McKinney, 297 Ga. App. 703, 705 (1) (678 SE2d 152) (2009) (“a change in visitation amounts to a change in custody in legal contemplation since visitation rights (sometimes called visitation privileges) are a part of custody [Cits.]”). Thus, the order Thompson seeks to appeal is directly appealable. Under OCGA § 5-6-35 (j), this Court will grant a timely discretionary application if the lower court’s order is subject to direct appeal. Accordingly, this application is hereby GRANTED. Thompson shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal with the superior court, if he has not already done so. The clerk of the superior 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 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/10/2019 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.