Dawn Guba v. Huron County, Ohio

695 F. App'x 98
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 21, 2017
Docket16-4034
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 695 F. App'x 98 (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, 695 F. App'x 98 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

DAMON J. KEITH, Circuit Judge.

This case arises out of the repeated, failed attempts on the part of the Child Support Enforcement Agency of Huron County, Ohio (“Huron CSEA”) to properly register Plaintiffs-Appellants’ (“Plaintiffs”) foreign child support order. Plaintiffs Dawn Guba (“Guba”) and Shawn Ward (“Ward”) appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees on their claim brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging a violation of Plaintiffs’ right to procedural due process. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Defendants because it found that there was “no evidence in the record that Ward made a payment to the Agency that it did not remit to Guba,” and therefore “a reasonable jury could not find that defendants’ misconduct deprived the plaintiffs of their protected property interests.” Guba v. Huron Cty., Ohio, No. 3:13CV592, 2016 WL 3952119, at *1 (N.D. Ohio July 22, 2016). On appeal, Plaintiffs argue that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standard and genuine issues of material fact exist as to whether Defendants deprived Plaintiffs of a property interest in the form of child support payments and garnished tax returns. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I.

Plaintiffs were married and divorced in Michigan, where a Michigan court entered a child support order requiring Ward to make child support payments to Guba. Following the divorce, both Guba and Ward separately moved to Ohio, and Guba sought help from the Huron CSEA to get the foreign child support case registered and enforced in the State of Ohio. From May 2006 until November 2008, Plaintiffs were able to pay and receive child support through the Huron CSEA without incident.

The problem giving rise to this litigation began after Plaintiffs sought to modify their child support obligations due to a change in Ward’s employment status. The initial modification effort appeared to be a success because judgment was entered by the Huron County Court of Common Pleas to reduce Ward’s support obligations from $942 per month to $558 per month on October 16, 2006. However, Defendant Heather Carman (“Carman”), a child support attorney for the Huron CSEA, received a note from a Huron County Court of Common Pleas magistrate on September 19, 2008 stating that Plaintiffs’ previous child support order was originally registered for enforcement purposes only. Consequently, Carman believed that “the Huron County court did not have jurisdiction to modify Ward’s support obligation.” Guba, 2016 WL 3952119, at *2.

Carman initially attempted to correct the error with two filings. On October 22, 2008, Carman filed a petition for registration of modification and continuing exclusive jurisdiction of foreign support order. 1 On November 19, 2008, she filed a motion to modify the existing foreign support order pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code Ann. *100 § 3115.46 (repealed 2016). A non-oral hearing was held before a magistrate on these issues, and, on May 7, 2009, the Huron County Court of Common Pleas dismissed the registration petition and denied the motion to modify the order.

Following this first failed attempt to properly register the support order, Car-man continued, to no avail, to remedy the defect. On June 10, 2009, Carman again filed a motion to modify the registered foreign support order. On September 28, 2009, this motion was dismissed without prejudice because the parties failed to comply with Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3115.48 (repealed 2016). On April 19, 2012, Carman filed a petition for registration of foreign support order. This petition was dismissed on July 30,2012.

On August 20, 2012, the Huron CSEA sent a notification to the Ingham County “Friend of the Court” in Michigan stating that it had “dismissed all actions in this case.” The Huron CSEA requested that Michigan enforce the case, and Michigan replied that it too had closed its cáse file in 2007. From August 20, 2012 forward, Plaintiffs were without active enforcement of their child support order in any state.

On February 11, 2013, following the closure of their case, Plaintiffs filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General’s office and the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. Consequently, the Huron CSEA agreed to obtain an original copy of the support order from Michigan and make another attempt to file the support order. Carman then filed a petition to register foreign support order for controlling order and continuing exclusive jurisdiction. This petition was also dismissed, although it is not clear why based on the record. See Guba, 2016 WL 3952119, at *9.

Plaintiffs filed this action on March 19, 2013. In their amended complaint, Plaintiffs alleged that they were deprived of protected property interests because “all child support payments stopped as of 2009, without a penny more ever paid to Guba, while Ward was still paying into Huron County and Huron CSEA accounts.” Further, Plaintiffs claimed that “Guba has not received child support services from Huron County since 2009, even though payments continued to be taken from Ward.”

To support these damages, Plaintiffs present the depositions of Guba, Ward, Carman, and CSEA investigator Stacey Rader (“Rader”). According to Plaintiffs, unpaid damages include: (1) payments made by Ward to the Huron CSEA that Guba did not receive; and (2) tax returns that were intercepted by the Huron CSEA but not paid to Guba,

During Guba’s deposition, she was asked if she had reason to dispute Defendants’ claim that all money paid by Ward was disbursed to her. Guba responded, “I don't believe that.” Asked if she had information or evidence to support her belief, Guba stated, “I don’t ... Just [Ward’s] word that he has gone up there and paid, or when all this started he could—they wouldn’t let him pay, so that’s why he started paying me [directly in cash].”

Guba was also asked why she believed that tax intercepts were taken from Ward. She responded, “my son came home and told me that his dad received an income tax refund.” In 2009, when Guba stated to the agency over the phone that she hadn’t received any payment from Ward’s taxes, the agency told her that she “was supposed to receive the money” because it was “in the system.”

Ward testified in regard to payments that he allegedly made to the Huron CSEA prior to his employment at Mickey Mart in December 2007. His testimony reads as follows:

*101 Q. While you were laid off between Tech System and Mickey Mart, did you make any child support payment?
A. I believe I did.
Q. Did you make those directly to Huron County CSEA?
A. Yeah, I think I brought it up there and paid out at Shady Lane.
Q. Did you ever get receipts for those payments?
A. I’m sure I did when I went in there and paid, I have no idea whatever happen [sic] to them. I figured they knew what was going on, so,
Q.

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