Douglass v. Raymond

2025 Ohio 4549
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 30, 2025
Docket31207
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 4549 (Douglass v. Raymond) 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
Douglass v. Raymond, 2025 Ohio 4549 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as Douglass v. Raymond, 2025-Ohio-4549.]

STATE OF OHIO ) IN THE COURT OF APPEALS )ss: NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COUNTY OF SUMMIT )

ELLEN DOUGLASS C.A. No. 31207

Appellee

v. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE JEFFREY RAYMOND COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO Appellant CASE No. DR 2019-12-3309

DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY

Dated: September 30, 2025

CARR, Judge.

{¶1} Defendant-Appellant Jeffrey Raymond (“Father”) appeals the judgment of the

Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division. This Court affirms.

I.

{¶2} Father and Plaintiff-Appellee Ellen Douglass (“Mother”) married in 2015. The

parties have two children, a daughter born in 2014 and a son born in 2018. Father and Mother,

acting pro se, dissolved their marriage in January 2020. The judgment included a separation

agreement and shared parenting plan. In lieu of child support, the parties agreed to a children’s

checkbook, whereby expenses for the children would be divided equally between the parties.

Following the dissolution, the parties continued to litigate issues that arose concerning the children.

{¶3} In September 2020, the trial court issued an entry which eliminated the children’s

checkbook provision from the shared parenting plan and ordered Father to pay $917.43 per month 2

in child support and $40.03 per month in cash medical support; the total with the processing fee

was $976.61 per month.

{¶4} In May 2021, the parties entered into a revised shared parenting plan, which was

adopted by the trial court as an agreed judgment entry. Therein, each party agreed to each pay half

of the work-related childcare expenses the parties incurred. Mother was also named the residential

parent for school purposes.

{¶5} In October 2021, Mother filed a motion seeking to hold Father in contempt for

failure to pay his half of the work-related childcare costs. Father was subsequently found to be in

contempt. Father ultimately paid the sum that had been due but failed to continue paying his share

of the childcare costs; thus, the purge period was extended. By October 2022, Father had purged

the contempt.

{¶6} In October 2022, Father filed a motion to terminate or modify the shared parenting

plan and to reallocate parental rights and responsibilities and child support. Father sought to be

named the residential parent of the children. In February 2023, Mother filed a motion seeking to

terminate the shared parenting plan and have her named the residential parent. In September 2023,

Mother filed another motion seeking to hold Father in contempt for his failure to pay his portion

of the childcare costs.

{¶7} The matter proceeded to a hearing before a magistrate in October 2023. On January

29, 2024, the magistrate issued a decision. The trial court adopted the magistrate’s decision and

entered judgment accordingly that same day. Father filed objections and supplemental objections

to the magistrate’s decision. The trial court overruled Father’s objections.

{¶8} Father has appealed, raising four assignments of error for our review, some of

which will be consolidated to facilitate our analysis. 3

II.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR I

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AND ABUSED ITS DISCRETION BY MODIFYING THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN, REDUCING APPELLANT/FATHER’S MIDWEEK PARENTING TIME FROM TWO DESIGNATED DAYS AND TIMES EACH WEEK TO ONE DAY A WEEK, AND FURTHER MANDATING THE MIDWEEK VISIT TAKE PLACE IN SUMMIT COUNTY OR THIRTY (30) MINUTES FROM APPELLEE- MOTHER’S RESIDENCE, WHICH IS CONTRARY TO BOTH WHAT THE COURT EVALUATOR RECOMMENDED AND THE APPELLANT/FATHER REQUESTED, AND INAPPOSITE TO THE CHILDREN’S EXPRESSED INTEREST IN SPENDING MORE TIME WITH APPELLANT-FATHER.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR II

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AND ABUSED ITS DISCRETION BY MODIFYING THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN, MANDATING APPELLANT/FATHER TO PROVIDE ALL TRANSPORTATION FOR THE THREE “BANKING” HOLIDAYS AWARDED TO APPELLANT/FATHER, BEGINNING AFTER SCHOOL UNTIL 8:00 P.M., NOTWITHSTANDING THE APPELLEE/MOTHER WAS RARELY PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION FOR THE CHILDREN’S VISITATION WHICH IS CONTRARY TO THE MAY 2021 SHARED PARENTING PLAN.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR III

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AND ABUSED ITS DISCRETION BY NOT DESIGNATING THE APPELLANT/FATHER AS RESIDENTIAL PARENT FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES AND KEEPING THE APPELLEE/MOTHER AS THE RESIDENTIAL PARENT FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES, PARTICULARLY SINCE THE CHILDREN DO NOT ATTEND SCHOOL IN THE MOTHER’S SCHOOL DISTRICT.

{¶9} Father argues in his first assignment of error that the trial court abused its discretion

in making changes to Father’s midweek parenting time. Father argues in his second assignment

of error that the trial court abused its discretion in its determination of the specific details of

Father’s parenting time on Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, and Veteran’s Day. Father

argues in his third assignment of error that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to name 4

him the residential parent for school purposes. As all three assignments of error relate to the

parties’ shared parenting plan, they will be addressed together.

{¶10} “This Court generally reviews a trial court’s action with respect to a magistrate’s

decision for an abuse of discretion. In so doing, we consider the trial court’s action with reference

to the nature of the underlying matter.” (Internal quotations and citations omitted.) Herron v.

Herron, 2021-Ohio-2223, ¶ 8 (9th Dist.). “Trial courts are generally afforded broad discretion in

determining whether a modification of parenting rights and responsibilities is necessary.” Id.,

quoting Bohannon v. Bohannon, 2020-Ohio-1255, ¶ 26 (9th Dist.). “A trial court’s decision

modifying the parties’ parenting time in a shared parenting plan is reviewed for an abuse of

discretion.” Herron at ¶ 8. An abuse of discretion indicates that the trial court’s decision is

unreasonable, arbitrary, or unconscionable. Blakemore v. Blakemore, 5 Ohio St.3d 217, 219

(1983).

{¶11} “This Court has held that a motion to modify parenting time under a shared

parenting plan is reviewed under R.C. 3109.04(E)(1)(a) because the motion seeks to reallocate the

parental rights and responsibilities set forth in a prior decree.” Herron at ¶ 9. R.C.

3109.04(E)(1)(a) states that “[t]he court shall not modify a prior decree allocating parental rights

and responsibilities for the care of children unless it finds, based on facts that have arisen since the

prior decree or that were unknown to the court at the time of the prior decree, that a change has

occurred in the circumstances of the child, the child’s residential parent, or either of the parents

subject to a shared parenting decree, and that the modification is necessary to serve the best interest

of the child.” “In applying these standards, the court shall retain the residential parent designated

by the prior decree or the prior shared parenting decree, unless a modification is in the best interest 5

of the child and . . . [t]he harm likely to be caused by a change of environment is outweighed by

the advantages of the change of environment to the child.” R.C. 3109.04(E)(1)(a)(iii).

In determining the best interest of a child pursuant to [R.C. 3109.04], whether on an original decree allocating parental rights and responsibilities for the care of children or a modification of a decree allocating those rights and responsibilities, the court shall consider all relevant factors, including, but not limited to:

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Related

Bettinger v. Bettinger, Unpublished Decision (10-12-2005)
2005 Ohio 5389 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
Bohannon v. Bohannon
2020 Ohio 1255 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
Herron v. Herron
2021 Ohio 2223 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
Blakemore v. Blakemore
450 N.E.2d 1140 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 4549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/douglass-v-raymond-ohioctapp-2025.