Bradford v. Kline
| Decision Date | 23 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,No. 47806,47806,1 |
| Citation | 127 Ga.App. 861,195 S.E.2d 258 |
| Parties | Danny V. BRADFORD v. Richard C. KLINE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
D. W. Slone, Lakeland, for appellant.
Elsie H. Griner, Nashville, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
Richard Kline, husband of the mother of the minor involved and whose custody had been placed in her by a divorce decree dated February 25, 1970, filed a petition to adopt the infant. Bradford, the natural father, was served with a copy and appended order dated June 7, 1972, setting the hearing for 10:00 a.m., September 18, 1972. The hearing was held, evidence was heard, an answer was filed, and an order granting the petition was entered up, all on September 18, but whether the answer was filed before or after the hearing an order on that day does not appear, nor is there any transcript of the testimony.
From the defendant's answer it appears that he refused to make weekly payments for child support as ordered in the divorce decree on the ground that he was being denied visitation rights. A denial of visitation rights does not justify the refusal to hold a defendant in contempt of court for failure to pay alimony. Jagoe v. Jagoe, 183 Ga. 273, 274, 187 S.E. 874; Atwell v. Hill, 226 Ga. 560, 563, 176 S.E.2d 60. Accordingly it certainly cannot be said that it would as a matter of law excuse the husband from making payments for child support so as to remove him from the provision of Code Ann. § 74-403(2) which provides that the consent of a parent who has wilfully and wantonly failed to comply with a support order for a period of 12 months or longer loses the right to object to an adoption without his consent. There being no transcript of the evidence we must assume that the failure to pay, which the defendant admits was intentional, was wilful and wanton within the meaning of the statute.
The sole enumeration of error in this case is the failure of the trial judge, when on June 7, 1972, he signed an order setting the date for the adoption hearing as September 18, to 'specify the last date for filing objections thereto.' Code Ann. § 74-414, which had previously specified that any 'person objecting to the entry of a final order of adoption shall file such objections in writing prior to the date assigned for a hearing' was changed by Ga.L.1971, p. 403, to provide: 'Any person objecting to the entry of a final order of adoption shall file such objection in writing at least 10...
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...appellant's nonpayments were intentional and constituted a voluntary abandonment as defined above. See generally Bradford v. Kline, 127 Ga.App. 861, 195 S.E.2d 258 (1973) (denial of visitation held no defense to nonpayment of child support). Accordingly, the trial judge's ruling was not 5. ......
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...is to deny that parent due process of law. Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 652, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551. In Bradford v. Kline, 127 Ga.App. 861, 862, 195 S.E.2d 258, this court held that the portion of Ga.L.1971, p. 403 (Code Ann. § 74-414) stating: "Any person objecting to the entr......
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