Home Helpers/Direct Link v. St. Pierre

964 N.E.2d 41, 196 Ohio App. 3d 480
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 26, 2011
DocketNo. CA2010-11-116
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 964 N.E.2d 41 (Home Helpers/Direct Link v. St. Pierre) 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
Home Helpers/Direct Link v. St. Pierre, 964 N.E.2d 41, 196 Ohio App. 3d 480 (Ohio Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Piper, Judge.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, John St. Pierre, appeals the decision of the Warren County Court of Common Pleas awarding judgment in favor of plaintiff-appellee, Home Helpers/Direet Link (“Home Helpers”).

{¶ 2} St. Pierre married his wife, Barbara Janice St. Pierre, in 1966, and the two later had a son, Jason, and a daughter, Jodi. After approximately 30 years of marriage, Barbara was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and in the last years of her life she could not care for herself. Barbara was bedridden and required St. Pierre’s help in accessing her wheel chair, dressing, bathing, changing her incontinence pads and catheters, and doing household chores such as cooking and cleaning. In December 2007, Barbara broke her hip when she fell off a wheelchair ramp and underwent surgery. After she was released from the hospital, she was transferred to a skilled nursing facility where she resided for approximately one month. During that time, St. Pierre moved out of the marital home into his own apartment and within a few months began an intimate relationship with another woman.

{¶ 3} On January 7, 2008, Barbara hired Home Helpers to provide her with 24-hour, in-home care for all the services St. Pierre used to help her with. Home Helpers sent the invoices to St. Pierre, and for six months, he paid the bills. However, in June 2008, St. Pierre stopped paying the invoices. In December [484]*4842008, St. Pierre filed a complaint for legal separation, and Barbara contested it. Barbara died before divorce proceedings were finalized.

{¶ 4} Despite St. Pierre’s nonpayment of the invoices, Home Helpers continued to provide Barbara with around-the-clock care and did so until she was hospitalized in January 2009. Once in the hospital, Barbara never returned home, and she died in April 2009 during another stay in a nursing facility. From the time St. Pierre stopped paying the bills, until the last day Home Helpers provided care, Home Helpers provided $37,780 in services to Barbara.

{¶ 5} Home Helpers brought suit to recover the unpaid balance, and the trial court held a bench trial during which it heard testimony from the owner of Home Helpers and St. Pierre, as well as a home-care provider who testified to the value of the services offered by Home Helpers. The trial court found in favor of Home Helpers and granted judgment in the amount of $37,780 plus interest and costs. St. Pierre now appeals the trial court’s decision, raising the following assignments of error. For ease of discussion, and because they are interrelated, we will discuss St. Pierre’s first and third assignments of error together.

Assignment of Error No. 1

Appellee’s failure to establish each element of the prima facie [sic] required for recovery of debt under R.C. § 3101.03(C)1 is fatal to the claim and precludes the imposition of liability on Mr. St. Pierre.

Assignment of Error No. 3

The trial court erred in finding that Mr. St. Pierre abandoned decedent without cause and was, consequently, liable for the debt owed to appellee.

{¶ 6} St. Pierre argues in his first and third assignments of error that the trial court erred in finding that he was required to pay Home Helpers’ fee.

{¶ 7} An appellate court will not reverse a judgment as being against the manifest weight of the evidence when the judgment is supported by some competent, credible evidence going to all essential elements of the claim involved. 1st Natl. Bank v. Mountain Agency, L.L.C., Clermont App. No. CA2008-05-056, 2009-Ohio-2202, 2009 WL 1278429, ¶ 13, citing C.E. Morris Co. v. Foley Constr. Co. (1978), 54 Ohio St.2d 279, 376 N.E.2d 578, syllabus. In determining whether a judgment is against the manifest weight of the evidence, an appellate court must be “guided by a presumption that the findings of the trier-of-fact were indeed correct.” Seasons Coal Co. v. Cleveland (1984), 10 Ohio St.3d 77, 80, 461 [485]*485N.E.2d 1273. Because the trial court is in the best position to weigh the testimony and observe the witnesses’ demeanor in order to gauge their credibility, this court must not substitute its judgment for that of the trial court when there is competent and credible evidence supporting the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. Id.

{¶ 8} “ ‘Where the decision in a case turns upon credibility of testimony, and where there exists competent and credible evidence supporting the findings and conclusions of the trial court, deference to such findings and conclusions must be given by the reviewing court.’ ” Choate v. Tranet, Inc., Warren App. No. CA2005-09-105, 2006-Ohio-4565, 2006 WL 2535770, ¶ 69, quoting Myers v. Garson (1993), 66 Ohio St.3d 610, 614, 614 N.E.2d 742. Accordingly, “[i]n reviewing a bench trial, an appellate court will uphold the trial court’s decision unless it appears the record cannot support a reasonable person in concluding as the trial judge did.” Bales v. Miami Univ., Butler App. No. CA2006-11-295, 2007-Ohio-6032, 2007 WL 3348270, ¶ 16.

{¶ 9} According to R.C. 3103.03, “(A) Each married person must support the person’s self and spouse out of the person’s property or by the person’s labor. If a married person is unable to do so, the spouse of the married person must assist in the support so far as the spouse is able. * * * (C) If a married person neglects to support the person’s spouse in accordance with this section, any other person, in good faith, may supply the spouse with necessaries for the support of the spouse and recover the reasonable value of the necessaries supplied from the married person who neglected to support the spouse unless the spouse abandons that person without cause.”

{¶ 10} During the bench trial, St. Pierre essentially argued that the requirements of R.C. 3103.03(C) were not met because Barbara did not need around-the-clock care, she was able to pay Home Helpers on her own, and Barbara had abandoned him prior to the time that she hired Home Helpers.

{¶ 11} Regarding Barbara’s needs, “[t]he term, ‘necessaries,’ as used in the statute means such food, medicines, clothing, shelter, or personal services as are usually considered reasonably essential for the preservation and enjoyment of life.” Smith v. Sutter (1951), 90 Ohio App. 320, 322-323, 106 N.E.2d 658. St. Pierre challenges the trial court’s ruling that Barbara’s necessaries included 24-hour care from Home Helpers.

{¶ 12} St. Pierre testified that Barbara was able to eat on her own, that she required only an hour of assistance in the morning and another hour at night, and that Barbara required little help with food preparation because she was a vegetarian who ate mostly salads and frozen meals. St. Pierre also testified that Barbara required little help getting dressed because she wore a wig and wore [486]*486dresses that were split down the back so that Barbara could put her arms through the dress and tuck the remainder between her back and the wheelchair. However, the court heard other evidence that directly contradicted St. Pierre’s testimony.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
964 N.E.2d 41, 196 Ohio App. 3d 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/home-helpersdirect-link-v-st-pierre-ohioctapp-2011.