Court Opinion

ID: 9603056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:02:54.967387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:08.167086
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent.
The appellant and appellee were divorced by judgment of the Superior Court of DeKalb County on July 30, 1976. Although the appellee was awarded custody of the minor child, the appellant refused to surrender custody of the child and filed notice of appeal. The appellee filed a contempt motion and the trial court found the appellant to be in contempt. The majority reverses, saying, in effect, to the appellee and trial judge: "There *177was a way you could have done this, but because you didn’t do it that way, you lose.”
I applaud the majority for pointing out how this matter could have been handled satisfactorily. Yet I deplore the fact that this court will not render a decision which would hold, pursuant to our inherent power and Code § 81A-162 (e), that where a notice of appeal is filed to a judgment of divorce providing for child custody and child support, such award of child custody and support becomes the temporary order of the court by operation of law pending appeal and such notice of appeal does not operate as supersedeas as to that part of the judgment fixing child custody and child support, unless the trial judge by express order enters supersedeas as to those matters.
It is true without question that the public is dissatisfied with the administration of justice. The decision of this case is, in my view, typical of the causes of that dissatisfaction. Here is a person who wilfully violated a solemn court order who thereafter filed a notice of appeal and escaped his responsibility. Such disregard for judicial processes should not be tolerated by any court. Such judicial impotency should not be tolerated by the public.