C.D. v. T.D.

2025 Ohio 4976
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 31, 2025
DocketL-25-00079
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 4976 (C.D. v. T.D.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C.D. v. T.D., 2025 Ohio 4976 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as C.D. v. T.D., 2025-Ohio-4976.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT LUCAS COUNTY

C.D. Court of Appeals No. L-25-00079

Appellee Trial Court No. DR020230117

v.

T.D. DECISION AND JUDGMENT

Appellant Decided: October 31, 2025

***** Martin J. Holmes, Jr., for appellee.

T.D., pro se. *****

MAYLE, J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, T.D., pro se, appeals (1) the March 19, 2025 judgment

of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division, denying

review of temporary emergency custody, and (2) its March 20, 2025 judgment, granting

T.D. and C.D. a divorce from one another and deciding disputed issues relative to the

divorce. For the following reasons, we conclude that T.D.’s appeal of the March 19, 2025

judgment is mooted by entry of the March 20, 2025 judgment. We affirm, in part, and

reverse, in part, the March 20, 2025 judgment. I. Background

{¶ 2} C.D. and T.D. were married on November 20, 2010. They have three

children who were born in 2009, 2011, and 2015. C.D. filed a complaint for divorce on

February 21, 2023. During the pendency of this action, several emergency, temporary,

and interim orders were entered concerning physical custody of the parties’ minor

children. C.D. was awarded temporary physical custody and, later, was designated their

temporary residential parent and legal custodian. T.D. filed “emergency” motions for a

change in temporary custody. Her motions were denied in a judgment journalized on

March 19, 2025.

{¶ 3} The case was tried to a magistrate from June 25 to 27, 2024. The magistrate

issued a written decision signed March 17, 2025, filed March 19, 2025, and journalized

March 20, 2025. In a judgment journalized on March 20, 2025, the trial court adopted

the magistrate’s decision and entered judgment granting the parties an absolute decree of

divorce from one another; designating C.D. the children’s residential parent and legal

custodian; awarding T.D. supervised parenting time of one two-hour session per week;

ordering T.D. to undergo mental-health treatment; dividing the marital property;

calculating T.D.’s child-support obligation, but reducing it to zero because of skepticism

about T.D.’s ability to find employment; ordering C.D. to pay spousal support of $3,570

per month for 40 months ($3,000 per month plus $500 toward arrears and a $70 monthly

processing charge) beginning July 1, 2024; and ordering T.D. to pay a portion of C.D.’s

attorney fees.

2. {¶ 4} Without a trial transcript, T.D. filed “objections” to the March 20, 2025

judgment. While Civ.R. 53(D)(3)(b)(ii) requires objections to a magistrate’s decision to

be “specific and state with particularity all grounds for objection,” T.D.’s objections—

like most of her filings over the life of the case—mainly consisted of unsubstantiated

accusations of criminal conduct by C.D., his attorneys, the trial judge, and others. Very

generously interpreted, T.D.’s objections challenged the custody determination, the

imposition of the costs of supervised visitation, the award of attorney fees, and strangely,

the child support award (which had been reduced to $0). The trial court entered a

judgment permitting T.D. time to obtain the trial transcript. In the meantime, T.D. filed a

Civ.R. 60(B)(3) motion, and in it she claimed that she was not required to obtain a

transcript. Accordingly, the trial court entered a judgment denying the Civ.R. 60(B)(3)

motion and revoked the additional time that T.D. had been given to secure trial

transcripts.

{¶ 5} T.D. appealed the trial court’s March 19, 2025 judgment denying review of

temporary emergency custody, and its March 20, 2025 “judgment entry with permanent

order” adopting the magistrate’s decision. T.D.’s appellate brief is difficult to interpret.

Like her filings in the trial court, it is filled with unsubstantiated accusations of

wrongdoing against C.D., his family, his attorneys, mental-health professionals, law

enforcement agencies, and various court personnel, including trial judges and

magistrates. It criticizes judges and prosecutors involved in other cases that arose after

the filing of the divorce action and accuses them of criminal conduct too.

3. {¶ 6} T.D.’s assignments of error are likewise difficult to decipher. Without

republishing her numerous unsupported allegations of criminal activity or addressing

judgments not properly before this court, we interpret her assignments as alleging error in

the trial court’s decision (1) designating C.D. the residential parent and legal custodian of

the children, (2) restricting parenting time, (3) dividing the parties’ property inequitably,

(4) awarding attorney fees to C.D., and (5) miscalculating the length of the marriage,

thereby affecting the award of spousal support.

II. Law and Analysis

{¶ 7} As summarized above, T.D. has appealed (1) the March 19, 2025 judgment

denying review of temporary emergency custody, and (2) the March 20, 2025 “judgment

entry with permanent order” adopting the magistrate’s decision. Given that the March

20, 2025 judgment provides permanent orders pertaining to custody, we find that this

judgment renders moot any judgment relating to emergency, temporary, or interim

custody orders. See Bentley v. Bentley, 2008-Ohio-3279, ¶ 15 (5th Dist.) (“We find the

issue regarding the granting of the emergency order has been resolved by the trial court’s

final decision and is therefore moot as it pertains to this appeal.”).

{¶ 8} As to the March 20, 2025 “judgment entry with permanent order” adopting

the magistrate’s decision, we have very generously interpreted T.D.’s brief as challenging

the court’s determinations concerning allocation of parental rights and responsibilities,

parenting time, property division, attorney’s fees, and spousal support. C.D. does not

address any of T.D.’s specific challenges, but he correctly observes that our standard of

4. review as to all the challenged aspects of the judgment is an abuse of discretion.

Kauffman v. Kauffman, 2014-Ohio-2559, ¶ 9 (6th Dist.); Newcomer v. Newcomer, 2013-

Ohio-5627, ¶ 88 (6th Dist.); Row v. Row, 2022-Ohio-2525, ¶ 9 (6th Dist.). C.D. contends

that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in any respect.

{¶ 9} Before we examine T.D.’s challenges to the trial court judgment, we observe

that T.D. (1) did not file the trial transcripts, and (2) did not properly preserve error here.

{¶ 10} First, judgment was entered after a three-day trial, yet T.D. did not file a

transcript of proceedings or an acceptable substitute. “Litigants who choose to proceed

pro se are presumed to know the law and correct procedure, and are held to the same

standards as other litigants.” Yocum v. Means, 2002-Ohio-3803, ¶ 20 (2d Dist.). Under

App.R. 9(B)(1) an appellant is obligated “to ensure that the proceedings the appellant

considers necessary for inclusion in the record . . . are transcribed in a form that meets the

specifications of App.R. 9(B)(6).” Without a trial transcript or an acceptable substitute,

“‘we cannot speculate what the testimony was at trial, and we are constrained to presume

the regularity of the proceedings below unless the limited record for our review

affirmatively demonstrates error.’” Windsor v. Francis, 2012-Ohio-4863, ¶ 5 (2d Dist.),

quoting Albritton v. White, 2011-Ohio-3499, ¶ 15 (2d Dist.).

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Related

Windsor v. Francis
2012 Ohio 4863 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2012)
Albritton v. White
2011 Ohio 3499 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2011)
Bentley v. Bentley, 07ca49 (6-26-2008)
2008 Ohio 3279 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
Goldfuss v. Davidson
679 N.E.2d 1099 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1997)
Row v. Row
2022 Ohio 2525 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2022)
Marlowe v. Marlowe
2023 Ohio 1417 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
Turner v. Turner
2024 Ohio 2200 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)

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Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 4976, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cd-v-td-ohioctapp-2025.