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Coleman v. Grimes

Collateral estoppel barred the child's mother and step-father from relitigating their claims that the biological father abandoned the child or was not fit to assume his parental rights.

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This is an appeal from the Superior Court of Putnam County’s Decree of Adoption in which the trial court terminated the parental rights of appellant Devin Patrick Coleman to his daughter, five-year-old K.C., under the aegis of OCGA § 19-8-10 a 1 and b 1 2 and in conjunction with permitting K.C. to be adopted by her step-father, appellee William “Tommy” Grimes, pursuant to OCGA § 19-8-6 1. While often steeped in emotional conflict, an appeal from an order of adoption is just as often fairly straightforward, because “in matters of adoption the superior court has a very broad discretion which will not be controlled by the appellate courts except in cases of plain abuse.”1 However, this case presents a unique set of circumstances which, as explained below, requires us to find an abuse of the trial court’s discretion in terminating Coleman’s parental rights. Consequently, we must reverse the instant Decree of Adoption as ordered by the Superior Court of Putnam County.

The record of the adoption proceedings shows that Coleman and Angie D. Treece2 were co-habitating in 1995 when Treece became pregnant. Coleman and she continued to live together throughout the pregnancy, with Coleman aiding in the support of Treece. K.C. was born on November 24, 1995, and Coleman was the named father on K.C.’s birth certificate; Coleman and Treece were both nineteen years old at the time of K.C.’s birth. They continued to live together for another fifteen months, with Coleman aiding in the support of the child.

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