In Re: Burleigh L. Singleton

Because the arguments on appeal completely lacked merit, the Court deemed the appeals to be frivolous and imposed a penalty of $1K each against the mother and her attorney personally.

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These consolidated appeals arise from an order in an ongoing visitation dispute between Kellie Van Leuvan, the mother of a minor child hereinafter, “the mother”, and Connie Carlisle, the child’s maternal grandmother “the grandmother”. In the order, the Superior Court of Fulton County found the mother to be in willful civil contempt of its temporary visitation order, and it ordered the mother and her former attorney, Burleigh Singleton, to pay the grandmother the attorney fees that resulted from her having to prosecute two contempt motions against the mother, pursuant to OCGA § 9-15-14 a and b. In Case No. A13A0783, Singleton contends that the court erred in ordering him to pay OCGA § 9-15-14 attorney fees. In Case No. A13A0784, the mother contends that there is insufficient evidence to support the court’s contempt ruling; she also challenges the court’s order that she pay OCGA § 9-15-14 attorney fees. Because the record supports the court’s order and we discern no error or abuse of discretion, we affirm the judgment in both cases.

The record shows the following, undisputed facts. In February 2011, the grandmother filed a petition asking for visitation with her granddaughter, who was four years old at the time and was living with her mother, who was divorced from the child’s father. On May 31, 2012, following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court issued a temporary order hereinafter, the “visitation order” in which it found that the grandmother had met her burden, under OCGA § 19-7-3 a, of showing that she was entitled to visitation with the child. The visitation order stated, in relevant part, as follows:

In Re: Burleigh L. Singleton

Because the arguments on appeal completely lacked merit, the Court deemed the appeals to be frivolous and imposed a penalty of $1K each against the mother and her attorney personally.

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