Cohen v. Cohen

The Georgia trial court had jurisdiction over the husband's child custody action under O.C.G.A. § 19-9-61 3, since the only other state, which could have had jurisdiction under O.C.G.A. § 19-9-61, declined to exert jurisdiction over the mother's custody action filed one month prior to the instant action.

Thank you for sharing!

Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Heather Cohen appeals from the denial of her motion to dismiss her husband’s complaint for divorce and child custody, challenging the trial court’s jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act “UCCJEA”.1 For the reasons that follow, we affirm. The undisputed record shows that Heather and David Cohen were married in June 2005, and Heather gave birth to their son in November 2005. In December 2006, Heather left Georgia with the son and lived with her family in West Virginia, but traveled back to Georgia with her son on various occasions. In April 2008, Heather filed an action for divorce and child custody in West Virginia; in May 2008, David filed an action for divorce and child custody in Georgia. In the West Virginia action, David moved to dismiss, which the trial court granted in July 2008 on jurisdictional grounds after finding that Heather had not established residency in West Virginia and was still a resident of Georgia. In the Georgia action, Heather specially appeared, moving to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, and the trial court denied the motion in September 2008, citing the West Virginia court’s lack of jurisdiction. This appeal followed.

1. At the outset, we address whether Heather’s appeal, which she made by way of application for interlocutory appeal under OCGA § 5-6-34 b, was proper. In Taylor v. Curl ,2 this court noted that OCGA § 5-6-34 was modified by the General Assembly in 2007 to provide that all “orders in child custody cases” are directly appealable.3 Also, Taylor explained that the amended statute made it “unnecessary for appellants in child custody cases to comply with the discretionary appeal procedures of OCGA § 5-6-35 a 2.”4 Here, because the issue on appeal is jurisdiction over the adjudication of child custody, Heather was not required to comply with either the interlocutory or discretionary appeal procedures in this child custody case, and the denial of her motion to dismiss was directly appealable.5

Cohen v. Cohen

Share with Email

Thank you for sharing!

Trending Stories

More From ALM

Subscribe to Daily Report