Grant of ex-wife’s petition to modify parties’ divorce decree, AFFIRMED, as ex-husband waived any objection to insufficient service of process by personally appearing at hearing on modification petition.

Hudson v. Easterling, A09A2396 (11/19/09)

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

Ruling on contempt sanction partially reversed; trial court impermissiby modified divorce decree when it ordered ex-husband to pay his ex-wife $1875 in lieu of transferring one-half of his 401(K) account to her;  contempt order did not merely clarify 401(K) provision in divorce decree, but transmuted award into presently-due-cash obligation; ample evidence supported trial court’s finding that ex-wife did not willfully disobey divorce decree provision requiring her to leave marital residence – run-down mobile home – in same condition; trial court did not fail to consider parties’ financial circumstances in awarding ex-wife $1,200 in attorney’s fees for contempt proceeding but trial court should reconsider fees on remand and consider revising it in its discretion to extent it was based on 401(k) issue; ex-husband waived right to closing argument at contempt hearing when he failed to request it.

Killingsworth v. Killingsworth, S09A1137 (11/23/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (12/4/2009)

GA orders granting sole custody of son to mother and sole custody of daughter to father, AFFIRMED;  mother’s contention that juvenile court erred in denying motion for reunification was meritless, since juvenile court sustained motion for reunification; juvenile court was authorized to find material change in circumstances because mother had suffered decline in mental health; juvenile court did not abuse discretion by determining that it was in daugher’s best interest to live with father, despite father’s acts of family violence; juvenile court did not err in denying mother’s discovery requests as untimely, because re-trial order required all discovery to be filed by 30 days after order and mother waited until almost nie moths later to file motion to compel discovery.

In the Interest of T.S. & L.S., A09A1294 (11/05/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (12/4/2009)

GA judgment upholding validity and enforceability of parties’ antenuptial agreement, AFFIRMED, 5-2; agreement was clearly contract made in contemplation of divorce, not contract made in contemplation of marriage, thus, agreement was not subject to OCGA 19-3-63’s dual attestation requirement – agreement addressed alimony and referred explicitly to possibility of divorce; record supported trial court’s finding that there are adequate pre-execution disclosure of husband’s financial statue – parties dated and/or lived together for more than 3.5 years before marriage, wife knew that husband owned professional building where she worked and wife knew that husband had siccessful real estte practice and knew about roughly 95 peson of land he owned when she signed agreement.

Lawrence v. Lawrence, S09A1370 (11/09/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (November 20, 2009)

GA Judgment PARTIALLY REVERSED on remand for consideration of attorney’s fees in parties’ divorce case, as trial court exceeded its discretion in modifying final divorce decree with regard to award to wife of percentage of parties’ retirement plans; final decree valued wife’s “retirement funds according to the date of transfer with-out any mention of specific dates” and valuation adopted by trial court on remand was contrary to final decree.

Leggette v. Leggette, S09A1503 (11/09/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (11/20/09)

GA Grant of wife’s motion to set aside default judgment in parties’ divorce case, AFFIRMED, under right for any reason rule; OCGA 19-5-8 prohibits default judgments in divorce, alimony and child custody actions.

Harold v. Harold, S09A1854 (11/09/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (11/20/2009)

Judgment AFFIRMED in parties’ divorce case; trial court correctly avoided any assumption against mother’s relocation to Pennsylvania and did not abuse its discretion in awarding priomary physical custody of parties’ young child to father; trial court had authority to discount any evidence of grandparents’ previous voluntary support of their grandchild, given parties’ substantial incomes.

Haskell v. Haskell, S09F1100 (11/02/09).

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

GA grants family violence protective order against appellant restraining her from communicating with her ex-husband or coming within 100 yards of him, except to drop off or pick up their minor child, AFFIRMED; appellant visited her ex-husband’s place of employment to harass him and left only after he threatened to call police, she told him she could cause problems for him at work, because she knew his boss, she sent him several text messages threatening to have him incarcerated and she had him followed during summer of 2008; sufficient evidence showed that appellant committed predicate act of stalking, which supported entry of protective order pursuant ot OCGA 19-13-1.

Quinby v. Rausch, A09A1816 (10/08/09)

From:  Fulton County Daily Report (10/30/2009)

Judgment partially reversed in parties’ divorce case;  trial court erred in concluding severability clause in divorce decree and is ordered to strike that language from judgment on remand;  remaining portions of trial court’s judgment, affirmed; trial court had authority to strike husband’s jury trial demand as proper sanctions for his willful refusal to participate in specially set trial; language in divorce decree regarding treatment of $200K lump sum property division as alimony in event husband files bankruptcy prior to paying amount in full did not change name of award;  trial court did not err under 19-6-2 in including wife’s attorneys’ fees for appellate proceedings during pendency of litigation in its fee award.

Kautter v. Kautter, S09F0958 (10/19/09).

Judgment in parties’ divorce case partially reversed; trial court erred in awarding wife $36.5K in lump sum alimony, payable over 3.5 months, given total lack of evidence showing that husband had financial resources to pay that amount.

Coker v. Coker, S09F1159 (10/19/09)

Fulton County Daily Report – 10/30/2009.