Court Opinion

ID: 9622156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:12:48.725029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:14.115020
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully and completely in the majority’s opinion. I write specially to emphasize the necessity for the exercise of the utmost care in imposing this most severe sanction. “Criminal contempt is a crime in the ordinary sense and the evidence of the contempt must be [proven] beyond a reasonable doubt. Contempt is a drastic remedy which ought not to deprive one of [his] liberty unless it rests upon a firm and proper basis.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) In re Harris, 289 Ga. App. 334, 336 (1) (657 SE2d 259) (2008). As the majority makes clear, no authority supports the trial court’s underlying conclusion that an attorney is authorized to withdraw a notice of lien filed by his client, particularly where, as here, Cabiness’ client filed the notice of lien pro se at the direction of another attorney and Cabiness was not complicit in the filing of the same, directly or indirectly. Cabiness’ act of forwarding copies of the notice filed by his client to the receiver is not violative of the terms of the receivership order enjoining “all persons . . . from creating or enforcing liens upon the Receivership Properties without leave of the Court.” (Emphasis supplied.) While I am well aware that the work of a trial judge is all too often demanding and stressful, the criminal contempt adjudged in this case is simply inappropriate and unwarranted.