Bond Almand

This case involved minor children, through a next friend, suing to remove Florine King as trustee of a tract of land conveyed to her in 1968 for their benefit, after she moved her residence to New York. The trial court directed a verdict for the plaintiffs and entered judgment removing the trustee based on a Georgia statute permitting removal when the sole trustee has moved beyond the jurisdiction of state courts. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed, ruling that the statute applied to the undisputed facts of the move and that the original grantor was not an indispensable party who needed to be joined. A dissent contended that the trustee remained subject to Georgia jurisdiction because the trust property was located in the state.

family lawpropertyprocedure

The case involved a former wife seeking to modify a 1960 Florida divorce decree that required her ex-husband to pay $100 per month in child support for their two minor children, asking a Georgia court to increase it to $300 per month based on changed circumstances including higher living costs and the husband's increased income. Both parties had since become Georgia residents. The Supreme Court of Georgia held that Georgia courts lack jurisdiction to modify a final child support decree issued by a court of another state. The court's reasoning centered on the state's alimony modification statutes, which apply only to judgments originally rendered in Georgia, and the requirement under the full faith and credit clause to respect the finality of the foreign decree absent specific statutory authority to alter it.

family law

This case involved a dispute between Colonial Pipeline Company and landowners Robert and Margaret Gober over Colonial's claimed easement to build and maintain a pipeline across the Gobers' property. Colonial sought an interlocutory injunction to prevent the Gobers from blocking construction, while the Gobers filed a cross-complaint denying the easement's validity, seeking to enjoin the work, and claiming damages for trespass. The trial court granted Colonial's request for an injunction and denied the Gobers'. On appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, the case was dismissed as moot because the pipeline construction had already been completed by the time of oral argument, rendering any ruling on the injunctions ineffectual.

propertyprocedure

This case involves Thomas M. Wilson, an inmate serving a life sentence for murder, who petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus claiming he was denied his right to appeal by his appointed counsel and that his request for a trial transcript as an indigent was improperly denied. The court adopted the trial judge's findings that Wilson was advised of his appeal rights, knowingly waived them, and that his request for the transcript came after the appeal period had expired without sufficient justification. The court denied the habeas petition, concluding that the denial of the transcript was proper in the absence of a timely appeal or showing of necessity, and remanded Wilson to custody.

criminal lawprocedurecivil rights

The case involved Johnny Larry Horton, who was convicted by a jury in Fulton County of armed robbery and motor vehicle theft and sentenced to 25 years total imprisonment. Horton appealed, arguing that a jury instruction on the inference of guilt from recent possession of stolen property improperly commented on his silence, that the jury was improperly allowed to disperse overnight without consent on at least one occasion, and that evidence of a prior specific robbery was wrongly admitted during the sentencing hearing. The court held that the possession instruction was a proper statement of Georgia law and not a comment on the defendant's failure to testify. It also found the evidence sufficient to support the guilty verdicts. However, the court reversed the sentence because the sentencing-phase evidence of a specific prior act violated rules requiring character evidence to address general reputation rather than particular transactions, and ordered a new sentencing hearing only.

criminal lawprocedure

In Hughes v. State, the appellant was convicted by a jury of three counts of armed robbery and sentenced to concurrent life terms; he appealed, claiming violations of his rights to a speedy trial, effective assistance of counsel, compulsory process for out-of-state witnesses, and due process regarding photographic evidence. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the convictions, holding that the 20-month delay did not violate speedy-trial rights because the State was prepared for trial each time, most delays resulted from the defendant's repeated disagreements with and replacements of counsel, he waived the right by failing to demand trial earlier, and he showed no substantial prejudice. The court also ruled that multiple appointed attorneys provided effective assistance despite the defendant's refusals to follow their advice, that state law did not require payment of travel expenses for out-of-state witnesses, and that any error in admitting testimony about photographs was harmless given the victim's positive in-court identification of the defendant.

criminal lawprocedure