Georgia Court Case: Smith v. Soligon

SMITH v. SOLIGON. 

A01A2333. 

COURT OF APPEALS OF GEORGIA, FIRST DIVISION 

254 Ga. App. 172; 561 S.E.2d 850; 2 Fulton County DR 823 

March 8, 2002, Decided 


Certiorari Applied For. 

Adoption. Gwinnett Superior Court. Before Judge Turner. 

Judgment affirmed. 


COUNSEL:
Joyce D. Colmar, for appellant. 

Claiborne, Outman & Surmay, James B. Outman, Barbara B. Bishop, for appellee. 

JUDGES:
POPE, Presiding Judge. Blackburn, C. J., and Mikell, J., concur. 

POPE, Presiding Judge.
William Christopher Smith appeals the superior court's order denying his petition to legitimate his biological son and granting Peter Paul Soligon's petition to adopt the child. For the following reasons, we affirm.
The relevant facts establish that the boy who is the subject of this appeal was born in July 1994; there is no dispute that his biological father is Smith. Smith and the child's mother never married. The child has lived with his mother since his birth. The child's mother married Soligon on October 9, 1999.
On October 17, 2000, Soligon filed a petition to adopt his stepson which was served on Smith on November 1, 2000. Attached to Soligon's petition was the mother's affidavit regarding the biological father, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 19-8-26, and the parental consent to stepparent adoption, under O.C.G.A. § 19-8-6 . Five days after being served with the adoption petition, on November 6, 2000, Smith filed a petition to legitimate the child.