Farber v. Farber
Farber v. Farber
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff/appellant George Farber Jr. seeks to appeal a January 23, 2004 order of the trial court that rescinded a previous court order staying custody proceedings and requiring the parties to submit to mediation within 45 days. Because this court is without appellate jurisdiction in this matter, the appeal is dismissed.
Farber was granted a divorce from his wife, Elizabeth Ayerst, in December, 1995. That judgment included a joint custody decree regarding the children, ordering that there would be no child support, but that each parent would pay the living expenses of the minor children while residing with that parent. The judgment included the proviso that in the event the custody arrangement proved impractical or unacceptable, the matter would be submitted to court supervised mediation.
In November, 2002, Ayerst filed a Motion To Modify Child Custody And Child Support, averring that since Farber moved to California, the original | .¡arrangement was impracticable. An interim order of support was issued by consent of the parties and a hearing was set for May 27, 2003, on the child support issue. In response, Farber filed a Memorandum in Opposition To Motion To Modify Child Custody And Child Support, in which he alleged, among other things, that any action to modify the 1995 custody arrangement was premature in the absence of mediation proceedings.
The trial court referred Ayerest’s motion for modification of child support to the domestic hearing officer for consideration. The officer fixed a basic support amount of $1,197.00 per month, to which Farber filed
On December 18, 2003, Farber filed a Motion To Stay Proceedings, alleging that a hearing on his “Exception of Prematurity” was not held prior to the October 9th judgment. Farber averred that the consent interim support order should remain in effect until supervised mediation had taken place. The court granted the stay ex parte and ordered the parties to submit to mediation within 45 days.
Ayerst filed an objection to the order, requesting the court rescind the stay and the order for mediation. The motion urged that notice of the mediation order was never served on her. On January 27, 2004, the order was rescinded. This is the judgment of the District Court currently on appeal.
At the outset, we note that as Farber admitted in his Motion And Order For Devolutive Appeal, the January judgment rescinding the stay order and ordering | ¿mediation is an interlocutory one, as indeed, is the stay order itself. Further, Farber has made no showing of irreparable injury so as make that judgment ap-pealable. Review of this judgment is properly taken under this court’s supervisory jurisdiction. However, this court does not convert appeals into Writ Applications.
Even so, we observe that other than ordering an expert evaluation in the custody proceedings, all actions of the trial court, including the October 16th judgment, involved child support. Although that support judgment was silent on the issue of prematurity, it does not mean that the trial court did not consider this issue at that time. It is well settled that when a trial court’s judgment is silent with respect to a party’s claim, or an issue placed before the court, it is presumed that the trial court denied the relief sought.
For the foregoing reasons, the appeal is dismissed.
APPEAL DISMISSED
. Rubin v. Westport Ins. Corp., 02-643 (La.App. 5 Cir. 12/11/02), 833 So.2d 1245.
. Loria v. Petunia’s Restaurant 2002-1712 (La.App. 4 Cir. 7/9/03), 852 So.2d 510.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.