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Suarez v. Halbert

The mother was not entitled to recover her attorneys fees for responding to the grandparents' good faith petition to protect their grandchildren under the Family Violence Act.

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Ernesto and Beatriz Suarez, as maternal grandparents, filed a petition under the Family Violence Act, OCGA § 19-13-1 et seq., seeking to halt their son-in-law from committing further acts of violence against their minor grandchildren. After a hearing, the court found merit to the petition and placed the grandchildren in the grandparents’ care and custody. Subsequently, the parents filed a motion for attorney fees under OCGA § 19-13-4 a 10, and the trial court assessed $10,440.55 in attorney fees against the prevailing grandparents, giving as the sole reason the disparity of income between the parties. We granted the grandparents’ application for discretionary appeal to consider their contention that the attorney fees provision contained in the Family Violence Act was not intended to reward the perpetrators or the abetters of domestic violence.

On February 23, 1998, on behalf of themselves and their grandchildren, Ernesto and Beatriz Suarez filed a petition under the Family Violence Act solely against Michael J. Halbert. This petition alleged that Michael Halbert had committed and was continuing to commit multiple acts of violence which included: grabbing, dragging, and throwing his son, fighting with the children’s mother, tying up his son in a bedroom and leaving him there, and making threats while in the children’s presence to kill them, their mother, and himself. After an ex parte hearing, the trial court issued a temporary protective order to ensure the children’s safety. Later, the trial court amended the order to add Beatriz Halbert as a party respondent to the petition.

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