In re E.M.T.

2025 Ohio 4638
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 2025
Docket2025-P-0016
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 4638 (In re E.M.T.) 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
In re E.M.T., 2025 Ohio 4638 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as In re E.M.T., 2025-Ohio-4638.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT PORTAGE COUNTY

IN THE MATTER OF: CASE NO. 2025-P-0016

THE NAME OF E.M.T. Civil Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division

Trial Court No. 2024 NC 00065

OPINION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY

Decided: October 6, 2025 Judgment: Affirmed

Amanda J. Lewis, Paoloni & Lewis, 250 South Water Street, P.O. Box 762, Kent, OH 44240 (For Appellee, Julie M. Helsel).

Oliver T. Koo, 250 South Chestnut Street, Suite 23, Ravenna, OH 44266 (For Appellant, Yvan M. Thornhill).

JOHN J. EKLUND, J.

{¶1} Appellant father, Yvan Thornhill, appeals the judgment entry of the Portage

County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, denying his Application for Change of

Name of Minor (Application) from E.M.T. to K.M.T. (D.O.B 2-16-2023). The trial court

denied the Application because it found that Appellant’s Application was barred by res

judicata as Appellant had already litigated the issue of E.M.T.’s name change in the

Portage County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division, in a parentage

action that Appellant brought against Appellee mother, Julie Helsel. {¶2} Appellant has raised three assignments of error, arguing that the trial court

erred as a matter of law by determining that his Application was barred by res judicata,

that the trial court ignored Appellant’s factual contention that the parties intended to

litigate E.M.T.’s first and middle name change in the probate court because the domestic

relations court informed the parties that it lacked jurisdiction over first and middle name

changes in parentage actions, and that the trial court erred by finding that res judicata

applied when a child’s best interest can supersede res judicata.

{¶3} Having reviewed the record and the applicable caselaw, we find Appellant’s

assignments of error to be without merit. First, the domestic relations court had jurisdiction

to address Appellant’s prayer for relief to change the child’s first and middle names.

Second, Appellant is barred by issue preclusion from relitigating the child’s name change

because Appellant entered into a Shared Parenting Agreement that provided “[t]he child’s

name shall be [E.M.T.].” Finally, Appellant filed the Application only 42 days after the

parties entered into the Shared Parenting Plan, and Appellant has not identified any

change in circumstances affecting the best interest of the child.

{¶4} Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the Portage County Court of Common

Pleas, Probate Division.

Substantive and Procedural History

The Parentage Action:

{¶5} On June 2, 2023, Appellant filed a Complaint for Parentage, Allocation of

Parental Rights, and Responsibilities/Custody, and Parenting Time/Companionship

and/or Visitation in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations

Division.

PAGE 2 OF 17

Case No. 2025-P-0016 {¶6} In his prayer for relief, among other things, Father sought to change the

minor child’s name from E.M.H. to K.E.T. and to be named as the child’s father on the

birth certificate.

{¶7} As resolution to Appellant’s parentage Complaint, the parties entered into a

Shared Parenting Plan. Article XVI, Item 3 of the Shared Parenting Plan provided that

“[p]arents reserve the right to modify this Shared Parenting Plan if it is in the best interests

of the child. Parents Agree that no subsequent amendment, change or addition shall be

binding upon either parent unless reduced to writing and signed by both parents.” Article

XVI, Item 5 provided the “[t]he child’s name shall be [E.M.T.].” The name change resulted

in E.M.T.’s last name being changed to that of Appellant and no change being made to

her first or middle name as Appellant had requested in his prayer for relief. Both parties

signed the Shared Parenting Plan, and the domestic relations court adopted it, on April

26, 2024.

{¶8} Appellant did not object to the Shared Parenting Plan and did not appeal

from the domestic relations court’s final entry that incorporated the Shared Parenting

Plan.

The Application for Change of Name of Minor:

{¶9} On July 7, 2024, Appellant filed an Application for Change of Name of Minor

requesting to change E.M.T.’s name to K.M.T. in the Portage County Court of Common

Pleas, Probate Division. In the Application, Appellant stated the reason for the requested

name change was because it was in E.M.T.’s best interest and that “[o]riginally, her

mother and I agreed upon the requested name, but mother unilaterally changed her

PAGE 3 OF 17

Case No. 2025-P-0016 name. Our daughter was just born last year and if the name change was granted, it would

help her relationship with her siblings and help preserve and develop our relationships.”

{¶10} The matter proceeded to a hearing before a magistrate on July 31, 2024. At

that time, Appellee objected to the Application and raised the issue of res judicata, arguing

that Appellant was precluded from raising the issue in the probate court because it had

already been litigated in the domestic relations court. The magistrate ordered the parties

to brief the issue.

{¶11} On August 30, 2024, the parties filed their briefs on the issue of res judicata.

Appellee attached Appellant’s Complaint for Parentage and the parties’ Shared Parenting

Plan. She said the parties had engaged in contested litigation in the domestic relations

court and had reached an agreement that “[t]he child’s name shall be [E.M.T.].” Therefore,

she argued that the issue was barred from being relitigated in the probate court or, in the

alternative, that any additional litigation over the change of name would need to be

resolved in the domestic relations court, pursuant to the parties’ Shared Parenting Plan.

{¶12} Appellant’s brief argued that Appellee had agreed to name the child K.E.T.

while she was pregnant but instead named the child E.M.H. However, he said that during

the proceedings on his parentage Complaint, “the Magistrate hearing the matter informed

both [Appellant] and [Appellee] that he believed he only had jurisdiction to change the

child’s surname.” (Emphasis added.) He argued that res judicata did not apply because

the domestic relations court did not have jurisdiction to change the first or middle name

of the child, and therefore the matter was properly before the probate court as the court

with exclusive jurisdiction over the matter. Appellant represented that he and E.M.T.’s

PAGE 4 OF 17

Case No. 2025-P-0016 siblings and extended family “know the child by the proposed name” and that the name

change would “strengthen her ties with her Father’s side of her family.”

{¶13} On September 12, 2024, Appellant filed a Reply Brief.

{¶14} On September 17, 2024, the magistrate issued a Magistrate’s Decision. The

Magistrate’s Decision noted that the parentage action was contested, that Appellant had

sought a complete name change in the domestic relations court, and that the Shared

Parenting Plan reflected a full and complete agreement that the child shall be known as

E.M.T. The probate court’s Magistrate’s Decision determined that the domestic relations

court “rendered a valid decision and had jurisdiction to decide the name change issue.”

Because Appellant was seeking to relitigate the same issue a mere 42 days after signing

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 4638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-emt-ohioctapp-2025.