The Georgia Court of Appeals recently heard an appeal of the grant of a legitimation petition, where the father was absent during the majority of the pregnancy, but in the child’s life from the moment he was born. Caldwell v. Meadows, A11A1031 (2011). In that case, the parties had a short relationship and then had virtually no contact during the pregnancy. Id. at 3.Toward the end of the pregnancy, the parties reconnected and even went shopping together for the baby. Id. The father visited the child in the hospital after he was born, and the mother and child moved in with the father for several days after coming home from the hospital. Id. at 4. After the mother moved to Georgia with the child, the father voluntarily paid child support, provided health insurance, and visited the child 22 times over two years. Id. at 4. After being asked by the mother’s attorney not to contact the child anymore, the father filed a petition for legitimation, which was granted by the trial court, along with joint legal custody and visitation for the father. Id. at 1 and 4.
The mother appealed, asserting that the trial court erred in excluding the issue of the father’s abandonment during the pregnancy. Id. at 1. The Georgia Court of Appeals disagreed,holding that “[w]hile a father’s lack of involvement prior to a child’s birth ‘is as significant as such a disregard after the child is born,’ we are aware of no authority limiting a trial court’s inquiry into whether a father has abandoned his opportunity interest to the period before the child’s birth especially where, as here, the father evinced such a clear intent to be involved in his child’s life following his birth.” Id. at 6-7; quoting Turner v. Wright, 217 Ga. App. 368, 369 (1995). The question in considering whether the father had legally abandoned his child is not whether “the father could have done more,” but rather whether the father “has done so little as to constitute abandonment.” Id. at 7; quoting Binns v.Fairnot, 292 Ga .App. 336 (2008). In this case, this father was more involved than many out of town parents in his child’s life. Thus, there was clearly no abandonment.