Dawn Guba v. Huron County, Ohio

600 F. App'x 374
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 22, 2015
Docket14-3022
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 600 F. App'x 374 (Dawn Guba v. Huron County, Ohio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dawn Guba v. Huron County, Ohio, 600 F. App'x 374 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

This case arises out of the futile efforts of Plaintiffs Dawn Guba and Shawn Ward to make and receive child-support payments through the Child Support Enforcement Agency of Huron County, Ohio. Plaintiffs are before us on appeal of the district court’s order dismissing all of their ' claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

Dawn Guba and Shawn Ward were married in 1996 in Huron County, Ohio. [R.13 (Amend.CompI.), Page ID 141.] Six years later, in 2002, the couple divorced in Ing-ham County, Michigan. [Id.] At that time, they mutually agreed to an Ingham County Circuit Court child-support order that directed Ward to pay a certain amount of his income each month to Guba for child support. [R.14-1 (Ingham child support order), Page ID 190.] In 2006, Guba moved back to Huron County, Ohio. Sometime thereafter, she and Ward attempted to obtain child-support services from .Huron County, the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA), and the Huron County Department of Jobs and Family Services (DJFS), to transfer and register the foreign child-support order from Ing-ham County to Huron County, pursuant to Ohio law. [R.13, Page ID 141.] On May 2, 2006, the Court of Common Pleas of Huron County entered an order directing that the child-support orders from Ingham County be transferred to Huron County for the collection, distribution, and enforcement of Plaintiffs’ child-support obligations. [Id., R.14-2 (Huron county court order), Page ID 196-210.]

From the date of the common pleas court order until 2008, Plaintiffs received child-support services from Huron County and the CSEA without any problems. [R.13, Page ID 141 — 42.] During this time, on October 16, 2006, the court granted Ward a modification of the support order — reducing his payments from $942.00/ month to $558.80/month — due to a change in his financial circumstances. [R.20-5 (common pleas court modification), Page ID 261-65.] In November 2008, Ward, with the assistance of the CSEA, attempt *377 ed to modify the support order a second time, but the court denied his motion in May 2009, finding that the May 2006 order was improperly filed and therefore unenforceable. [See R.20-6 (May 2009 order), Page ID 276-77; R.13, Page ID 142.] Before the court’s May 2009 decision, CSEA employee Heather Carman, without notifying Plaintiffs, attempted to vacate the May 2006 order and re-register the foreign support order, but her motions were dismissed for “lack of prosecution.” 1 [R.13, Page ID 14243.]

Carman again attempted to register the foreign support order in June 2009, but that motion was initially “continued for further hearing” in September due to Car-man’s failure to comply with Ohio Rev. Code § 3115.48(A)(2), which requires written consent from both parties. [See Ohio Rev.Code § 3115.48; R.20-7; R.20-8 (September 2009 orders).] The court ordered that the parties either “demonstrate compliance with [Ohio Rev.Code] § 3115.48 prior to the next scheduled hearing or [ ] appear and show cause at the scheduled hearing why the pending motion should not be dismissed.” [R.20-7, Page ID 280.] Although Plaintiffs claim that Carman did not notify them of these proceedings, the court’s written order states that the court notified and served them by regular mail on September 8, 2009. [Id., R.13, Page ID 143-44.]' After a hearing on September 23, 2009, which Plaintiffs did not attend, the court dismissed Carman’s motion to register the foreign support order due to her continued failure to abide by Ohio Rev.Code § 3115.48(A)(2). [R.20-8; R.13, Page ID 144.] Again, Plaintiffs claim that they were unaware of this hearing, although the court’s order indicates that the court served them with a copy of the dismissal order by regular mail on September 29, 2009. [R.20-8, Page ID 283.]

Plaintiffs assert that in 2009, after the CSEA had stopped forwarding Ward’s child support payments to Guba, they called Huron County, the CSEA, and the DJFS on numerous occasions — at least thirty separate occasions over the course of three years — but were “told that there was nothing that could be done for [them],” and that only Ingham County, Michigan, could address their concerns as that county “was the proper forum for their child support issues.” Guba claims that Carman on one occasion “advised Guba that [Huron County] was unwilling to help either Guba or Ward due to [Huron County’s] ‘dislike’ for [them].” During this time, Ward continúed to make support payments to the CSEA, and because those payments were not forwarded to Guba, he also furnished Guba with support money outside of the CSEA procedures. 2 [R.13, Page ID 144-45.]

Finally, in March 2012, Huron County and the CSEA agreed to again attempt to register the foreign support order, but only if Guba and Ward agreed to sign a waiver and supporting affidavits, waiving any and all claims resulting from the improper filing of the May 2006 order. [R.13, Page ID 145-46; R.20-9 (Guba Aff.); R.20-10 (Ward Aff.); R.20-11 (Waiver).] After the Plaintiffs executed the waiver and affidavits in April 2012, *378 Carman again filed a petition to register the foreign support order. [R.13, Page ID 146.] But the order failed to comply with Ohio Rev.Code § 3115.39(A)(2), which requires the submission of relevant support orders together with their modifications, along with the petition. [R.20-12 (June 2012 order), Page ID 296.] The court, gave Carman thirty days from the date of its June 4, 2012, order to comply with Ohio Rev.Code § 3115.39(A)(2), and when Car-man did not do so, the court dismissed the petition on July 30, 2012. [Id.; R.20-17 (June 2013 petition), Page ID 308-10.]

Following the dismissal of the petition, the CSEA sent notice to Ingham County, stating that the Ohio courts had dismissed all actions and closed Plaintiffs’ child-support case, and requesting that Ingham County resume enforcement of Plaintiffs’ support order. [R. 20-13 (Transmittal), Page ID 298.] A few days later, on August 23, 2012, the Ingham County Friend of Court notified the CSEA that it had closed Plaintiffs’ case in 2007 and therefore could not resume enforcement. [R.20-15 (Friend of Court letter), Page ID 302.] Upon the advice of the Ingham County Friend of Court, Guba contacted the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, asking that it investigate the child-support issues with the CSEA; soon thereafter, she requested a hearing before the DJFS.

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Bluebook (online)
600 F. App'x 374, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dawn-guba-v-huron-county-ohio-ca6-2015.