Opinion
A25D0028
08-27-2024
SEAN CROSSWHITE v. KRISTI YAKE.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
The parties were divorced in 2014. In 2023, Sean Crosswhite filed a petition to modify custody, parenting time, and child support, and a petition for contempt. Following a hearing, the court dismissed the petition to modify custody, parenting time, and child support, denied the petition for contempt, and awarded Kristi Yake attorney's fees. Crosswhite then timely filed this application for discretionary review.
We granted an extension of time, allowing Crosswhite until August 12, 2024, to file his application. See Case No. A24E0081 (July 10, 2024).
Under OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11), direct appeals are permitted from "[a]ll judgments or orders in child custody cases awarding, refusing to change, or modifying child custody or holding or declining to hold persons in contempt of such child custody judgment or orders." Thus, when the appeal arises from a child custody modification case, and the appellant raises child custody issues, the order is directly appealable. See Voyles v. Voyles, 301 Ga. 44, 46-47 (799 S.E.2d 160) (2017); Pappas v. Stewart, 369 Ga.App. 40, 41 (1) (892 S.E.2d 59) (2023). Because Crosswhite seeks to challenge the trial court's child custody and contempt ruling, the order here may be appealed directly. See id. Moreover, because Crosswhite's direct appeal of the modification order is proper, he may raise on appeal "all judgments, rulings, or orders rendered in the case . . . which may affect the proceedings below[,]" even if those orders are not otherwise subject to direct appeal. OCGA § 5-6-34 (d). See also Murphy v. Murphy, 328 Ga.App. 767, 768 (1) (b) (759 S.E.2d 909) (2014).
We will grant a timely discretionary application if the lower court's order is subject to direct appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Accordingly, this application is hereby GRANTED. Crosswhite shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal with the trial court. The clerk of the trial court is DIRECTED to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals.