Court Opinion

ID: 9564331
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:58:09.739716+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:21.543064
License: Public Domain

Webb, Judge,
dissenting.
"As used in the Georgia Adoption Act (Ga. L. 1941, p. 301, as amended, Ga. L. 1950, pp. 289, 290; Code Ann. § 74-404), 'wantonly and wilfully’ ('failed to comply with the order’) means without reasonable excuse, with a conscious disregard of duty, willingly, voluntarily and intentionally.” Carpenter v. Forshee, 103 Ga. App. 758, 773 (3) (120 SE2d 786) (1961); Nix v. Sanders, 136 Ga. App. 859, 860 (1) (223 SE2d 21) (1975). "If the excuse be reasonable although not legal, the absence of the legal excuse does not demand a finding the failure to pay child support was wanton and wilful. [But] absence of legal excuse without reasonable excuse may demand such a finding if there is no evidence authorizing a finding the failure was merely inadvertent, accidental, involuntary, inattentive, inert, or a passive omission. . .” Richey v. Cothran, 140 Ga. App. 580, 582 (231 SE2d 572) (1976).
I do not agree with the majority that under the facts here a finding either way was not demanded, or that the trial judge erroneously believed he had no discretion and was compelled to find as he did. In my view the judge intended to hold that the evidence demanded a finding that the failure to pay child support was not wanton and *17wilful, and that any other finding was unauthorized by the evidence. Under such construction the order was not so clearly erroneous as to require reversal. See McCann v. Duggan, 144 Ga. App. 547, 548 (2) (241 SE2d 647) (1978); Kriseman v. Kenmore, 143 Ga. App. 490, 492 (1) (238 SE2d 585) (1977). Thus, even if the language of the order was apocryphal, it could not in any event be harmful to the parties, and "[o]nly error in conjunction with harm constitutes reversible error.” Carpenter v. Forshee, 103 Ga. App. 758, 770 (2), supra and cits. Accordingly, I would affirm the denial of the petition.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen joins in this dissent.