M.A.M. v. A.P.H.

2023 Ohio 3503
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 29, 2023
Docket29763
StatusPublished

This text of 2023 Ohio 3503 (M.A.M. v. A.P.H.) 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
M.A.M. v. A.P.H., 2023 Ohio 3503 (Ohio Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

[Cite as M.A.M. v. A.P.H., 2023-Ohio-3503.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT MONTGOMERY COUNTY

[M.A.M.] ON BEHALF OF MINOR : CHILDREN : : C.A. No. 29763 Appellee : : Trial Court Case No. 2020 DV 01557 v. : : (Appeal from Common Pleas Court- [A.P.H.] : Domestic Relations) : Appellant :

...........

OPINION

Rendered on September 29, 2023

ALAN J. STATMAN, Attorney for Appellant

MICHELLE M. MACIOROWSKI, Attorney for Appellee

.............

HUFFMAN, J.

{¶ 1} Father appeals from a consent agreement that he entered into with Mother

and that was then approved by the domestic relations court; the consent agreement

resolved Mother’s petition for a domestic violence civil protection order (“protection order”)

in favor of the parties’ minor children. Father argues that the domestic relations court -2-

erred in failing to dismiss the petition for four reasons: 1) there was an unreasonable delay

before a full hearing was scheduled on the petition; 2) the domestic relations court lacked

jurisdiction to approve the consent agreement due to proceedings pending in the juvenile

court related to custody of the children; 3) one of the children had never been endangered,

as alleged; and 4) a material term of the agreement was frustrated when the reunification

counselor named in the agreement declined to provide counseling to the parties. The

matter is reversed in part and remanded to the domestic relations court for clarification of

certain provisions of the consent agreement and a determination of whether any of the

provisions address parental rights and responsibilities and therefore infringe upon the

jurisdiction of the juvenile court. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.

Procedural History

{¶ 2} On October 23, 2020, Mother filed a petition for a protection order against

Father on behalf of their children, N.H. and A.H. The petition stated:

I got my daughters back from parenting time with [Father] on October 19,

2020. My daughter, N.H., reported to me that her father had picked her up

by the throat and screamed at her. I have made a police report and the

matter is being referred for a Care House investigation. [Father] has a

history of violence and has two pending criminal charges in Kettering, one

for assault [and] the other for domestic violence against his former wife that

occurred in his home. Over the past months, [Father’s] behavior has

become more erratic, angry and violent. My children return home from

parenting time distressed and afraid. I fear for their safety and well-being -3-

during [Father’s] parenting time.

{¶ 3} The domestic relations court issued an ex parte protection order, and Father

was served with it on October 23, 2020. A full hearing was scheduled for November 5,

2020. On March 26, 2021, after a telephone status conference, the court continued the

matter, setting it for a full hearing on June 4, 2021. The record contains no explanation

for the delay between November 2020 and March 26, 2021. On April 15, 2021, Father

filed a motion for supervised parenting time.

{¶ 4} On May 21, 2021, the parties jointly moved for a continuance, noting that

Father’s pending criminal cases had been continued until July 28, 2021. The court

granted the motion and continued the matter until September 16, 2021. The court also

extended the expiration of the ex parte protection order until January 23, 2022 by

agreement of the parties. On October 29, 2021, Mother moved the court to further

extend the ex parte protection order, noting that Father had moved for a continuance of

his pending jury trial in Kettering M.C. No. 20 CRB 01311 (which involved N.H. and arose

from the incident alleged in the petition for the protection order), and the municipal court

had granted the motion. On May 18, 2022, Father filed a motion to set a hearing on the

protection order, noting that a plea deal had been reached in Case No. 20 CRB 01311.

{¶ 5} On May 19, 2022, Mother responded to Father’s motion by asking the court

not to schedule a hearing until Father’s “sentencing in all of his criminal matters” was

complete, noting that Father had five separate cases, involving five different victims,

pending for sentencing. Father replied the same day, characterizing Mother’s response

as a “delay tactic”; he argued that his sentencing in Case No. 20 CRB 01311 was -4-

scheduled for the following day (May 20) and that the other matters involved different

people and would not be a basis for a continuance of the proceedings on Mother’s

petition. The court set the matter for a full hearing on August 26, 2022.

{¶ 6} On July 11, 2022, Father filed a motion to dismiss Mother’s petition for lack

of prosecution. He noted that he had not seen his children since October 23, 2020. He

also asserted that the criminal case involving N.H., Case No. 20 CRB 01311, had been

fully resolved on May 20, 2022. Citing R.C. 3113.31(E)(1)(d) and McCue v. Marlin, 187

Ohio App.3d 1, 2010-Ohio-1298, 930 N.E.2d 855 (7th Dist.), Father asserted that “key

prohibitions” of the ex parte protection order exceeded the domestic relations court’s

jurisdiction and interfered with parenting time rights that had been previously determined

by the Montgomery County Juvenile Court.

{¶ 7} In response to the motion to dismiss. Mother argued that Father’s multiple

continuances of his criminal matters, the pandemic, and scheduling issues related to

having a visiting judge had caused the delays, not her failure to prosecute. Mother

asserted that there were no provisions in the ex parte protection order granting custody

or suspending parenting time, denied forum shopping, and argued that McCue was

distinguishable. She also pointed out that the domestic relations order was an ex parte

order, not a final order, and argued that the children were entitled to a full hearing on

whether they were in danger of domestic violence by Father, which was within the

jurisdiction of the domestic relations court.

{¶ 8} On August 5, 2022, the domestic relations court denied the motion to dismiss.

The court noted that, since the filing of the parties’ joint motion to continue, several -5-

attorneys had entered appearances on Father’s behalf and then withdrawn, but Father

had been represented at the time of each continuance. The court also noted that

Father’s criminal matters had been continued several times, which had led to

continuances of the domestic relations matter without objection from Father. The court

ordered that the August 26, 2022 full hearing would proceed as scheduled. The court

did not address the jurisdictional argument raised in Father’s motion.

{¶ 9} On August 25, 2022, Father requested a continuance due to the illness of

counsel. The court granted the continuance and reset the full hearing for October 27,

2022. On that date, after lengthy negotiation, the parties entered into the consent

agreement, which is discussed more fully below and which was read into the record.

{¶ 10} On December 12, 2022, Father filed a motion to dismiss the consent

agreement as to A.H., because no threats or violence against A.H. had been alleged.

On January 25, 2023, the court denied the motion to dismiss, noting that the parties’

consent agreement included A.H. The court also ordered that the consent agreement

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2023 Ohio 3503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mam-v-aph-ohioctapp-2023.