12 Ga. App. 54 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1912
Manning brought'habeas corpus to obtain possession of his minor daughter, who was being detained by her maternal grandparents under an alleged parol gift from the father. The hearing was had before Hon. E. W. Jordan, judge of the city court" of Sandersville, presiding in the city court of Wrightsville, and an order was passed awarding the custody of the child to the defendants, but providing that she should be required to visit her father at stated intervals upon application by him, and the defendants were directed to deliver the child to her father upon such application, “without some good and sufficient reason and excuse.” This order and judgment were affirmed by the Court of Appeals. Manning v. Crawford, 8 Ga. App. 835 (70 S. E. 959). Subsequently Manning filed a petition addressed to Hon. J. L. Kent, judge of the city court of Wrightsville, and to the city court of Wrightsville, alleging that he had demanded his child from the defendants for the purpose of" having her visit him in accordance with the terms of the order previously passed, and that the defendants had failed and refused to surrender the child to him. He prayed that a rule nisi be issued, requiring the defendants to show cause why they should not be adjudged in contempt. Hpon this petition an order was issued by Judge Kent, reciting that he was disqualified to hear the petition, by reason of relationship to the parties, and directing that the defendants show cause before Hon. E. W. Jordan, judge of the city court of Sandersville, in the city court of Wrights-ville, why they should not be adjudged in contempt as prayed. While the case was pending, the city court of Wrightsville was abolished by the General Assembly, and all of the cases therein pending were transferred to the superior court of Johnson county. Thereafter the contempt proceeding came on to be heard before Judge Hawkins in the superior court. At the hearing the defendants demurred, filed a plea in abatement, and answered. The demurrer was overruled, the plea in abatement was stricken on motion, and, after hearing evidence, the judge passed an order adjudging that the defendants were guilty of contempt, but provided that they might be relieved from any penalty upon their strict compliance with the order which had been passed in the habeascorpus case; and the defendants were ordered to deliver the minor child to her father upon his application therefor, to be kept by him until the expiration of the time specified in the original order; and