Felton v. Felton
679 N.E.2d 672 (1997)


ProceduralAppellant ex-wife sought a protection order pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 3113.31 against appellee ex-husband in the trial court, which granted the ex-husband a directed verdict, ruling that the divorce decree between the parties gave the ex-wife an injunction that prohibited the ex-husband's violent behavior. The Court of Appeals for Carroll County (Ohio) affirmed the trial court order. The ex-wife appealed.

Facts: Wife (P) sought a domestic protection order pursuant to the domestic violence statute against Husband (D). The trial court ruled at the end of P's testimony that P met the preponderance of the evidence burden for granting the order. D moved for a directed verdict. The trial court considered D's answer as testimony and granted the directed verdict. The court of appeals held that because the parties' dissolution decree contained a no-harassment provision, a domestic violence protection order would be unnecessary and superfluous. P appeals.

Issue: May a court issue a domestic violence protection order even if the parties have a no harassment decree as part of their dissolution decree?

Rule:When granting protection order pursuant to civil domestic violence statute, trial court must find that petitioner has shown by preponderance of evidence that petitioner or petitioner's family or household members are in danger of domestic violence.


Holding: Yes. Judgment reversed and remanded.
The Court of Appeals affirmed, and discretionary appeal was allowed. The Supreme Court, Resnick, J., held that: (1) fact that parties' marriage dissolution decree already prohibited them from harassing each other did not bar issuance of protection order under the statute; (2) preponderance of evidence standard applied; and (3) uncontroverted testimony of woman and another concerning former husband's violent proclivities warranted issuance of protection order.


Analysis: There is nothing in the domestic violence statute that precludes a court from issuing a protection order even if there is a no-harassment provision in the divorce judgment because the domestic violence statute provides that its remedies are in addition to and not in lieu of any other available civil or criminal remedies.