Court of Appeals

of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A17D0067. IN THE INTEREST OF: L. A. D., E. A. D., AND A. A. D.

(MOTHER). 

A17D0068. IN THE INTEREST OF S. A. D., M. A. D., AND S. P. D. 

(MOTHER).

On May 2, 2014, L. A. D., E. A. D, and A. A. D. were removed from the

custody of their legal father and mother due to physical abuse. On that same day, S.

A. D., M. A. D., and S. P. D., whose mother does not reside in this country, were also

removed from the custody of the father for the same reason. The father’s parental

rights to all six children were terminated in March of 2015. On April 19, 2016, the

mother of the children captioned in Case No. A17D0067 surrendered her parental

rights to the paternal grandparents for purposes of adoption, and she has not revoked

her surrender. Similarly, on May 20, 2016, the mother of the children captioned in

Case No. A17D0068 surrendered her parental rights to the paternal grandparents for

the same purpose, and she, too, has not revoked her surrender.1 On August 9, 2016,

the juvenile court entered orders in both cases in which it concluded that the paternal

grandparents do not pose a viable placement alternative for the children and

transferred permanent legal and physical custody of the children to the Walton

County Department of Family and Children Services for the purposes of adoption. 

The mothers filed these applications to challenge the trial court’s orders. 

Pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11), “[a]ll judgments or orders in child

custody cases awarding, refusing to change, or modifying child custody” are directly

1 The paternal grandparents have a pending petition for adoption as to all six

children.

October 11, 2016
appealable. A party seeking to challenge a child custody order, therefore, may file a

direct appeal. See Cohen v. Cohen, 300 Ga. App. 7, 8 (1) (684 SE2d 94) (2009);

Taylor v. Curl, 298 Ga. App. 45 (679 SE2d 80) (2009). OCGA § 19-9-41 (4) defines

a “child custody proceeding” as “a proceeding in which legal custody, physical

custody, or visitation with respect to a child is an issue.” Because the order in this

case established legal custody over the children, the order is directly appealable under

OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (11).

This Court will grant an otherwise timely discretionary application if the lower

court’s order is directly appealable and the applicant has not already filed a notice of

appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Accordingly, these applications are hereby

GRANTED. The appellants shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a

notice of appeal with the trial court. If, however, they have already filed a notice of

appeal, they need not file a second notice. The clerk of the trial court is DIRECTED

to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________

I certify that the above is a true extract from

the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Witness my signature and the seal of said court

hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.

10/11/2016