Ghani v. Greenfield

2018 Ohio 3259
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 14, 2018
Docket17AP-478
StatusPublished

This text of 2018 Ohio 3259 (Ghani v. Greenfield) 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
Ghani v. Greenfield, 2018 Ohio 3259 (Ohio Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

[Cite as Ghani v. Greenfield, 2018-Ohio-3259.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

TENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

Zubaidah A. Ghani, :

Plaintiff-Appellant, : No. 17AP-478 v. : (C.P.C. No. 15DR-2015)

Eugene Greenfield, : (REGULAR CALENDAR)

Defendant-Appellee. :

D E C I S I O N

Rendered on August 14, 2018

On brief: Derek A. Farmer, for appellant. Argued: Derek A. Farmer.

On brief: Omar Tarazi, for appellee. Argued: Omar Tarazi.

APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Division of Domestic Relations, Juvenile Branch

BRUNNER, J. {¶ 1} Plaintiff-appellant, Zubaidah A. Ghani, appeals two judgments of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations, Juvenile Branch, entered on June 8 and November 8, 2017. The June 8, 2017 entry granted the parties a divorce, ordered the sale of the marital residence, and gave the parties equal parenting time of their three children, but designated defendant-appellee, Eugene Greenfield, the legal custodian and residential parent. The November 8, 2017 entry served to enforce part of the June 8, 2017 entry by investing Greenfield with authority to execute all necessary documents for the sale and closing of the marital residence. Because the trial court acted within the reasonable exercise of its discretion in naming Greenfield the parties' children's legal custodian and residential parent and in dividing parenting time equally, we affirm the divorce decree. Because the trial court exercised reasonable discretion in giving Greenfield the power to execute the sale of the marital residence and in enforcing the intent of the No. 17AP-478 2

decree except in limited instances in which it modified the decree, we affirm in part and reverse in part the enforcement entry. I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY {¶ 2} On May 29, 2015, Ghani filed a complaint for divorce against Greenfield and requested that she be named sole custodian and residential parent for their three children. (May 29, 2015 Compl.) Four days later, Ghani "relocated" with the children to Cleveland. (July 15, 2015 Ghani Aff. at 3.) On June 4, 2015, Greenfield answered and counterclaimed requesting a divorce and he be awarded sole custody. (June 4, 2015 Answer & Counterclaim.) In mid-July, Ghani requested not only that she be the sole custodian and residential parent but that Greenfield have only supervised visitation with the three children once per month. (July 15, 2015 Ghani Aff. at 3.) {¶ 3} After accepting affidavits from the parties and other witnesses, on August 5, 2015, the court issued a temporary order awarding shared custody to both parents and designating Greenfield the residential parent for school placement purposes. (Aug. 5, 2015 Temporary Order at 1.) Two days after that, Ghani filed a motion requesting exclusive and beneficial use of the marital residence at 6912 Laurel Boat Lane, Canal Winchester, OH 43110. (Aug. 7, 2015 Mot. for Beneficial Use.) Three days thereafter, and more than two months after her initial departure, Ghani announced her relocation from Cleveland back to the marital residence in Canal Winchester. (Aug. 10, 2015 Relocation Notice.) {¶ 4} In October 2015, a magistrate of the trial court held a hearing on the motion for beneficial use and also to consider amendments to the temporary order. (Oct. 16, 2015 Hearing Tr.) During the hearing, testimony was presented by both parties and Greenfield presented a video. Id. in passim. Greenfield testified to the effect that Ghani played loud recitations of religious literature late at night and moved her father into the marital house with her. Id. at 50, 54-56, 60-61. The video played during the hearing shows an incident where Ghani, while holding one of the children, repeatedly moved to block Greenfield from going into one of the children's rooms and accused him of harassing her whenever he attempted to walk past her to gain access to the room. Id. at 57-58; Sealed Ex. A.6. Following the hearing, on November 3, 2015, the trial court issued an amended temporary order designating Greenfield the residential parent and legal custodian for all the children, granting equal parenting time to Ghani, and granting Ghani exclusive use of the marital residence. (Nov. 3, 2015 Order at 2, 4.) No. 17AP-478 3

{¶ 5} In January through April 2017, the court held a trial. Prior to trial the parties stipulated that they were married in March 2007, and have three children, E.G. (born 2011), A.G. (born 2012), and I.G. (born 2014). (May 6, 2016 Stipulations.) As to contested matters, 11 witnesses testified. Ghani testified on her own behalf and also called her father and two acquaintances to testify to her parenting abilities. She called Greenfield's new girlfriend to testify. She also hired a private investigator during the course of the case who attempted to testify to Greenfield's movements in an effort to speculate about whether he spent his parenting time with the children. Greenfield testified on his own behalf and called his father and sister to testify about his parenting aptitude and the relationship they have observed between the parties. He also hired a vocational expert to opine on Ghani's employability and earning potential.1 The final witness to testify was an expert called by the court, the guardian ad litem for the children. As the issues in this appeal focus on the disposition of the marital residence post-trial and the trial court's decision to award legal custody to Greenfield, our review of the testimony will be limited as such. {¶ 6} Ghani testified that, with Greenfield's agreement, she left work as a teacher when the third of the three children was born on January 1, 2014. (Tr. at 534-35.)2 She testified that Greenfield had three jobs and was also a member of a number of civil and social organizations. (Tr. at 546-48.) She alleged that he was essentially an absentee father who put all the child-rearing and household responsibilities on her. (Tr. at 559-60.) She acknowledged, however, that he occasionally cooked and would read a story to the children now and again. (Tr. at 562.) {¶ 7} After she filed for divorce, she asserted that Greenfield stopped depositing his checks in the joint account and cut her off financially. (Tr. at 578-79.) She stated that this spurred her to move to Cleveland where her parents were located. (Tr. at 691.) However, she admitted that Greenfield sent her an e-mail when he closed the joint account in which he asserted that he would pay all household bills and give her spending money. (Tr. at 758- 63.) She admitted that taking the children to Cleveland was a unilateral decision on her part, that Greenfield had asked for equal access to the children, and that she gave him only intermittent access to the children during the approximately two-month period that she

1We do not further discuss this witnesses' testimony as it is not relevant to the contested issues in this appeal. 2The trial transcript was filed in ten volumes on November 6, 2017. Because the volumes are consecutively paginated we do not refer to volume number and simply cite the page. No. 17AP-478 4

was in Cleveland. (Tr. at 767, 770-72.) She denied that taking the children to Cleveland injured their relationship with their father and said it was normal for her and the children to spend summers in Cleveland. (Tr. at 774-75.) She denied that her father (the children's grandfather) moved in with her upon her return from Cleveland to the marital residence but admitted he stayed there four nights per week. (Tr. at 849-51.) {¶ 8} During a February trial date, Ghani testified that she had recently accepted a job at a daycare in Reynoldsburg at $16 per hour for 40 hours per week (although she later revealed that she was not yet working full-time and would not be doing so until after the conclusion of the case). (Tr.

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Bluebook (online)
2018 Ohio 3259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ghani-v-greenfield-ohioctapp-2018.