Court Opinion

ID: 9585486
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:00:59.658025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:48:41.099864
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Division 2. I concur in Division 1 because the action, a petition for termination of parental rights and a petition for extension, was filed not by the prisoner but by the Georgia Department of Human Resources acting by and through the DeKalb County Department of Family & Children Services. Whether or not appellant was a prisoner at any time in which this proceeding was pending, from its initiation onward, is irrelevant to the method of appeal required for such cases. Since the petitions are not actions filed by a prisoner, OCGA § 42-12-8 does not apply.
The question of whether actions filed by prisoners seeking a change in family relationships would be subject to OCGA §§ 42-12-8 and 5-6-35 or would be exempt for some reason must await a proper case for resolution.
The remoteness of the connection between appellant’s status and the proper method of appeal is heightened by the facts in the context of the subject matter. The mother of these children was not incarcerated at the time the combined petitions were filed on October 31, *1441995, but was only a prisoner at the time the notice of appeal was filed on May 24, 1996, and for less than a week beyond that. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office has advised the court that the appellant was in custody in jail from April 16 to May 30, 1996.
Decided June 29, 1998.
William M. Warner, for appellant.
Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Jeffrey L. Milsteen, Deputy Attorney General, William C. Joy, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Shalen A. Sgrosso, Assistant Attorney General, Nardone & Read, Robert G. Nardone, Steven J. Matz, for appellees.
It is noteworthy that there is no explanation for the long delay in the transmittal of the appeal to this Court, from May 1996 to November 1997. See OCGA § 5-6-43 (a) and (d). Because of the necessity of assuring that children’s custodial and familial status are legally established as quickly as possible for their welfare, such cases should be expedited through the judicial process, not delayed.