Judgment and final divorce decree arising from parties’ common law marriage, AFFIRMED; Georgia recognizes valid common law marriages from other states, Alabama law applied with respect to common law marriage in this case and evidence, though conflicting, satisfied Alabama criteria for common law marriage; trial court did not err in admitting evidence of parties; conduct after they moved to Gerogia, since their cohabitation and public recognition of their marriage could corroborate other evidence of prior agreement to marry in Alabama; trial court lacked authority to credit appellant for his pre-trial payments of temporary alimony against final award; trial court had authority to enter October 22, 2009 judgment nunc pro tunc to April 7, 2009 and to order appellant’s monthly lump-sum alimony installments to begin on June 1, 2009 and, in any event, appellant benefitted from that order, since his monthly lump-sum payments were $500 less than his monthly temporary alimony payments; Courts had no jurisdiction to consider trial court’s December 1, 2009 contempt order, even if nunc pro tunc to November 19, 2009 provision of that order was proper, since trial court entered that order subsequent to final divorce decree and appellant’s enumeration regaruding contempt order was not redicated on proper and timely appeal.

Norman v. Ault, S10F0874 (06/07/2010), 10 FCDR 1821

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (06/18/2010)

Revision; judgment revered and case remanded;  Court had jurisdiction over mother’s appeal, even though appeal involved final divorce decree, which included child custody determination, rather than separate child custody order, since mother followed required application procedures for discretionary appeal; trial court had authority to revise custody award in this case beyond term in which trial court entered original custody decree, because father filed his motion for reconsideration within the term of court; however, trial court lacked authority to set aside its original custody determination without determining child’s best interests, regardless of whether mother was living with another man – mother contended that she and man in question did not live together prior to divorce and, since divorce, they had married and, at motion for reconsideration hearing, trial court simply followed its own policy of never awarding custody to parent living with non-relative.

Todd v. Todd, S10A0471 (06/01/2010), 10 FCDR 1754

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (06/11/2010)

Order granting maternal grandmother visitation rights with her daughter’s two children, pursuant to Georgia’s Grandparent Visitation Statute, AFFIRMED; daughter could not challenge visitation order, since she aided in causing order by moving trial court to enforce earlier visitation agreement and there was no evidence of fraud or mistake; daughter was authorized to file instant appeal, pursuant to OCGA 5-6-34(a)(11); Court declined to dismiss daughter’s appeal and denied grandmother’s motion to sanction daughter for filing frivolous appeal.

Hargett v. Dickey, A10A0762 (05/20/2010), 10 FCDR 1702

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (06/04/2010).

Denial of husband’s motion to set aside judgment in parties’ divorce case and his motion for new trial, AFFIRMED 5-2; evidence presumably supported trial court’s ruling in absence of transcription, and in any event, wife, in her pro se response, directly challenged husband’s factual assertion that providential cause prevented him from attending divorce trial; absent transcription and in light of trial court’s order granting divorce based on ground that marriage was irretrievably broken, husband could not show harm from service of wife’s amended complaint, adding allegations of crueltry and audltery, only two days before trial.

Holmes v. Roberson-Holmes, S10F0130 (05/17/2010), 10 FCDR 1607

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (05/28/2010)

Denial of appellant’s motion for contempt and emergency change of custody, AFFIRMED, as some evidence supported trial court’s ruling that appellee was not in contempt; though parties’ divorce decree did not award child support due to appellant’s then existing health problems, it did not debar appellee from exercising his legitimate right to seek child support at some future time and appellant failed to show that change in custody was necessary or in child’s best interest; absent transcript, evidence presumably supported trial court’s ruling, in any event; after trial court declined to award any child support in divorce action, appellee filed action for child support through Child Support Enforcement Office, which entered order granting support from appellant, though order was later temrinated to to appellant’s health problems.

Jones v. Foster, A10A0278 (05/03/2010), 10 FCDR 1527

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (05/14/2010)

Mother’s appeal of custody in parties’ final divorce decree, DISMISSED, for lack of jurisdiction over mother’s direct appeal;  O.C.G.A. § 5-6-35(a) (2) required mother to file application for discretionary appeal, because this was divorce case in which child custody was at issue, not child custody case; child custody determination did not transform divorce action into child custody case under § 5-6-34; Court reiterated that ‘”underlying subject matter generally controls over the relief sought in determining the proper procedure to follow to appeal.”‘

Todd v. Todd, S10A0471 (03/29/2010), 10 FCDR 1010

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (4/09/2010)

Dismissal of father’s new/amended contempt application concerning mother’s alleged violation of his visitation rights, REVERSED; father had right under O.C.G.A. § 5-6-34 as amended to directly appeal dismissal of his contempt motion, father’s new contempt motion gave mother adequate notice of nature of his claim and trial court’s sua sponte dismissal without hearing did not afford father due process; mother’s contention that trial court lacked personal jurisdiction was meritless, even though mother had moved out of state, since father’s properly served prior contempt motion was still pending when he served mother with new/amended motion and father’s service of new/amended motion on mother’s attorney of record in prior pending action was sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction.

Dennis v. Dennis, A10A0500 (03/10/10), 10 FCDR

From the Fulton County Daily Report, 3/26/2010.

Judgment AFFIRMED in parties’ divorce action;  trial court did not abuse its discretion by setting visitation schedule; husband did not present his evidence to trial court, recommending that children have more time with non-custodial parent, nor did trial counsel raise argument at trial; husband’s contention that trial court did not ascertain reason he was earning less than his potential income, REJECTED;  although trial court did not make explicit findings in this regard, it was not required to make written findings and, thus, it cannot be said that trial court did not ascertain reasonableness of husband’s occupational choice.

Bankston v. Lachman, S09F1706 (02/01/2010), 10 FCDR 229.

From:  Fulton County Daily Report, 2/12/2010.

Judgment granting father’s motion to enforce settlement agreement pertaining to child custody and visitation and awarding him primary physical custody of his two children, AFFIRMED; absent transcript, trial court presumably did not err in rejecting mother’s claims that she did not assent to settlement’s terms and lacked capacity to contract at time in question due to medical condition;  Court had jurisdiction over direct appeal of matter, since relevant legal action for jurisdictional purposes was father’s motion to enforce settlement agreement, which he filed after 2007 amendment to OCGA § 5-6-34 providing that all judgments or orders in child custody cases are directly appealable – and not divorce complaint, which was filed prior to amendment.

Martinez v. Martinez, A10A0248 (11/24/09), 09 FCDR 3955

From:  Fulton County Daily Report, 12/18/2009.

Creation of $250K trust to fund future child support payment, AFFIRMED:  Court had jurisdicion to consider father’s appeal, even though father filed his appeal outside of 30 days of trial court’s order, since certain details of trust were not specified and order contemplated further court action; trial court was authorized to create trust under OCGA 19-6-15, because statue provided for instances where trial court had discretion to deviate from child support table and statue as a  whole gives trial court broad discrtion when ruling on child support obligations; trust did not violate OCGA 9-5-6, which prevents creditiors without liens from enjoining debtors from disposing of property, ince some evidence showed that father wasted or mismanaged his assets and that he was in arrears several times with child support payments; trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering trust that only benefited one of father’s children, because trial court considered other child support orders when it calculated support award, trust was fully funded by father’s 2007 an 2008 bonus money and trial court did not have authority to enter trust awards for any other child; trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering $250K to be placed in trust, because it had discretion to create trust and father did not show any error in trail court’s calcautions.

Henry v. Bacham, A09A1129 (11/19/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (12/11/2009)