Cain, B. v. Cain, B.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 27, 2024
Docket1597 MDA 2023
StatusUnpublished

This text of Cain, B. v. Cain, B. (Cain, B. v. Cain, B.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cain, B. v. Cain, B., (Pa. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

J-A11006-24

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

BRYAN CAIN : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : BILLIE CAIN : : Appellant : No. 1597 MDA 2023

Appeal from the Order Entered November 1, 2023 In the Court of Common Pleas of York County Civil Division at No(s): 2020-FC-002885-03

BEFORE: BOWES, J., STABILE, J., and MURRAY, J.

MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED JUNE 27, 2024

Billie Cain (“Mother”) appeals pro se the November 1, 2023 order

denying her petitions for contempt, which alleged that Bryan Cain (“Father”)

(collectively, “Parents”) violated various aspects of the custody orders of

December 15, 2020, January 22, 2021, March 4, 2021, June 30, 2021, and

May 11, 2022, concerning Parents’ natural son, C.N.C., born in 2014. 1 The

court’s order also “clarified” certain aspects of the existing custody order

governing Mother’s contact with C.N.C.2 After careful review, we affirm. ____________________________________________

1 The trial court and the litigants in this matter refer to the various custody orders by the date that the orders were dictated in open court, as opposed to the date of filing. To avoid confusion, we note that we refer to the orders discussed in this writing by the dates of filing that appear on the docket.

2 Our precedent provides that “an order denying a petition for contempt” is final and appealable when it is “entered in relation to a prior final order.” See Schultz v. Schultz, 70 A.3d 826, 828 (Pa. Super. 2013) (“[T]he refusal of a (Footnote Continued Next Page) J-A11006-24

We glean the factual and procedural history of this controversy from the

certified record. Parents were originally married but separated shortly after

C.N.C.’s birth. Following their separation, Father has resided in Whitman,

Massachusetts, while Mother has lived in Mt. Wolf, Pennsylvania. For the first

approximately six years of his life, C.N.C. resided with Mother. The trial court

has authored an apt summary of the events that then led the court to place

C.N.C. in Father’s sole legal and physical custody:

York County Office of Children and Families (hereinafter, “YCF”) received four referrals between February 20, 2020, and October 14, 2020, regarding Mother’s mental health and concerns regarding whether Mother was adequately meeting C.N.C.’s basic needs. The referrals related to Mother’s continuing belief that she and C.N.C. were infected with worms and parasites. . . . C.N.C. was taken to physicians many times over a period of ten months and treated several times at Mother’s request to eradicate pinworms and other types of worms although no physician has documented the child to have worms or parasites. Hershey Medical Center had concerns that Mother could be suffering from delusional parasitosis related to herself and her son as well as possible Munchausen’s syndrome.

Although YCF offered Mother services to address her mental health issues, Mother refused all services. The dispositional order also noted that Mother contacted the police department sixteen times in 2020, alleging that there were intruders in the home, bombs in her backyard, her electronics having been hacked, her neighbors putting fireworks in her car hood, finding men’s clothing in the back of her vehicle, and numerous other reasons. C.N.C. was placed in the temporary custody of YCF when Mother was arrested on October 21, 2020 . . . . ____________________________________________

lower court to enter an order holding someone in contempt may be a final order, but only if the refusal is tantamount to denying the party requesting the order relief to which the party has a right under an earlier order.”) (cleaned up). Instantly, Mother’s contempt petitions implicated the final custody order in this matter and, thus, we find it is appealable as of right. See id.

-2- J-A11006-24

Trial Court Opinion, 12/21/23, at 1-2 (cleaned up). Thereafter, Mother was

released from custody and C.N.C. was returned to her care.

Based upon these events, YCF filed a dependency petition with respect

to C.N.C., which culminated in hearings held on December 14 and 15, 2020.

Although the dependency court did not adjudicate C.N.C. dependent, it

transferred physical and legal custody of C.N.C. to Father. See N.T.,

12/15/20, at 3-4.3 The dependency court’s order also included a number of

provisions governing communications between Parents. See id. at 10

(“Communication protocols shall be attached to this order and incorporated

into the order.”). While we are able to infer that this December 15, 2020

order existed, it is not present in either the certified or reproduced records.

Contemporaneously, Father filed a custody complaint seeking primary

physical and sole legal custody of C.N.C. On January 22, 2021, the court

entered a custody order awarding Father primary physical and sole legal

custody of C.N.C. and providing Mother with supervised partial physical

custody three times per week. See Order, 1/22/21, at 3-4. This order also

incorporated the terms of the December 15, 2020 order. See id. at 3.

On March 4, 2021, the trial court filed a follow-up order reducing

Mother’s periods of partial physical custody to twice per month. See Order,

3/4/23, at 2. Aside from this reduction in Mother’s periods of partial physical

____________________________________________

3 This transcript appears in the certified record as Mother’s Exhibit 36.

-3- J-A11006-24

custody, the March 4, 2021 order “ratified in full” the custody terms set forth

in both the December 15, 2021 order and the January 21, 2021 order. Id.

On March 26, 2021, Mother’s counsel withdrew their appearance.

Thereafter, Mother operated pro se in prosecuting these proceedings.4

On or about June 30, 2021, Parents reached a stipulated resolution to

Father’s then-pending custody petition. By explicit reference, the resulting

order largely preserved the status quo of physical and legal custody

established by the prior custody orders. See Order, 6/30/21, at 2 (awarding

Mother partial supervised physical custody “every other weekend”).

On August 25, 2021, Father filed a custody modification petition

“alleging that Mother’s mental health and behavior had become an issue

again.” Trial Court Opinion, 12/21/23, at 3 (cleaned up). Specifically,

Father indicated that Mother’s behavior resulted in police involvement and her hospitalization on or around July 6, 2021, during one of Mother’s physical custodial periods. Father’s allegations included that Mother’s behavior was increasingly bizarre and disruptive to C.N.C. in that C.N.C. is required to defecate into a receptable in the living room, so that Mother can inspect the contents, and Mother’s insistence that C.N.C. be re- circumcised for no reason.

Id.; see also Father’s Petition for Special Relief, 8/25/21, at ¶¶ 11-13. On

May 11, 2022, the trial court filed an order reducing Mother’s periods of partial

physical custody to the first weekend of each month subject to strict

4 Our precedent provides that there is no right to counsel in custody proceedings. See Karch v. Karch, 879 A.2d 1272, 1274 (Pa.Super. 2005).

-4- J-A11006-24

supervisory guidelines. See Order, 5/11/22, at 1-3. The other terms

governing custody of C.N.C. remained unaltered.

Between June 30 and October 19, 2023, Mother filed a succession of

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Cain, B. v. Cain, B., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cain-b-v-cain-b-pasuperct-2024.