N.T. (“the mother”) appeals from a judgment of the Jefferson Juvenile Court (“the juvenile court”) modifying the visitation schedule of P.G. and J.M. (“the former custodians”) with the mother’s minor children. We affirm.
Procedural History
In prior proceedings, the juvenile court declared the mother’s three minor children dependent and placed each of them in the custody of one of the former custodians. Upon proof of the rehabilitation of the mother, the juvenile court eventually returned custody of the children to the mother. In the juvenile court’s August 5, 2009, judgment returning custody of the children to the mother, the juvenile court also granted each of the former custodians “standard visitation.” The mother did not appeal from that judgment or otherwise seek to have the visitation provisions of that judgment vacated.
On November 19, 2009, the mother filed a “Motion To Amend and Close Case” in which she requested that the juvenile court amend the visitation provisions of the August 5, 2009, judgment to permit the former custodians to visit with the children solely at the discretion of the mother. Apparently, because the motion was filed well beyond the period for filing a post-judgment motion, see Rule 1(B), Ala. R. Juv. P. (“All postjudgment motions ... must be filed within 14 days after entry of order or judgment....”), the juvenile court treated the mother’s motion as a petition to modify the visitation provisions of the August 5, 2009, judgment based on changed circumstances.
On appeal, the mother argues solely that the juvenile court erred in granting any
On a petition to modify visitation, a court does not reexamine the evidence to determine if its original judgment was correct; rather, it decides whether modification is warranted based on changed circumstances. In G.P. v. A.A.K.,
“[T]he fact that the Houston Circuit Court had jurisdiction to modify the grandparents’ visitation rights as the mother requested does not mean that it had jurisdiction to redetermine, ab ini-tio, whether the grandparents should have been granted visitation rights — the previous visitation judgment ‘remain[ed] a custody determination of the state that issued it.’ ”
Although this case does not involve issues regarding interstate jurisdictional conflict, the reasoning in G.P. applies equally to this case. The mother should have raised any constitutional or other objections she had to the judgment awarding visitation rights to nonparents at the time that judgment was entered on August 5, 2009. See E.H.G. v. E.R.G., [Ms. 2071061, March 12, 2010] - So.3d -, - (Ala.Civ.App.2010) (recognizing right of fit parent to prevent visitation by grandparents, which right can only be overridden by court based on evidence that the prevention of the visitation would harm the child). However, the mother did not file a timely postjudgment motion or an appeal raising those objections. Instead, she waited until November 19, 2009, to file a “motion to amend” the August 5, 2009, judgment. At that point, any error committed by the juvenile court in granting the former custodians visitation rights in the August 5, 2009, judgment had become the law of the case, subject to modification only upon a showing of changed circumstances. See McQuinn v. McQuinn,
On appeal from one judgment, an appellate court cannot consider arguments relating to errors committed in a previously entered final judgment from which no appeal was taken. See Moody v. Myers,
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. We note that the juvenile court would have jurisdiction over a petition to modify the visitation provisions of its judgment pursuant to Ala.Code 1975, § 12-15-117(a).
