Vines v. VinesVines v. Vines
Thomas Vines appeals from a trial court’s order denying his motion to modify the terms of his visitation rights with his daughter and granting Anita Vines’ counterclaim for contempt and request for attorney fees. Finding no error, we affirm.
1. Anita and Thomas Vines were divorced in 2005 by a final decree awarding Anita primary physical custody of their child and granting Thomas secondary physical custody and visitation at least every other week from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning. In 2007, Thomas’ visitation rights were modified after Anita presented evidence that he was using pornography in the home where the child visited, evidence of bestiality and other inappropriate conduct in the home, and evidence of misbehavior and harassment by Thomas and his new wife, Dianna, directed toward Anita. Based on the evidence presented, the court found Thomas suffered from histrionic personality disorder and had not sought any treatment, that Thomas failed to address his psychological issues and modify his behavior, that Thomas and Dianna
2. In several enumerations of error, Thomas argues the trial court abused its discretion by denying his motion to modify the visitation rights afforded him in the trial court’s 2007 order. Under Georgia law, visitation rights are apart of custody. See
At the hearing on Thomas’ motion to modify visitation, there was substantial evidence of Thomas and Dianna’s continued failure to comply with the court’s orders pertaining to their harassment and degradation of Anita despite the harm and detriment it caused the child. In addition, the court heard evidence of Thomas’ refusal to work with the child’s psychologist and his failure to pay for another qualified psychologist in order to obtain additional or unsupervised visitation. Based on the evidence presented at the hearing and the trial court’s consideration of the child’s best interest, we cannot say there was a clear abuse of discretion in the trial court’s denial of the motion to modify visitation rights.
3. Thomas asserts without citation to authority that the trial court erred by refusing to interview the child regarding her desire for increased visitation with her father. There is nothing in the record, however, indicating that the trial court refused to talk to the child or that Thomas was precluded from presenting the child as a witness in support of his motion to modify visitation. There are only two references in the record to the possibility of the child testifying, and on both occasions Thomas’ counsel merely encouraged the court to talk to the child. Absent any authority requiring the court to interview the child sua sponte or any evidence that the court prohibited Thomas from calling the child as a witness, this enumeration of error presents nothing for us to review.
4. Thomas contends the trial court’s award of attorney fees must be set aside because the statutory basis for the award is not cited in the court’s order. We disagree. In her petition for contempt, Anita sought attorney fees and expenses incurred by her in having to bring her motion for contempt.
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
Anita filed and the trial court granted a motion to add Dianna as a party to the action.
In a separate order, the trial court denied Anita’s request to suspend Thomas’ visitation but granted her petition to increase child support. Thomas’ direct appeal from that order challenging only the court’s ruling on child support was dismissed by this Court on November 26, 2012, for failure to file an application to appeal.