Bouffard v. Bouffard, Unpublished Decision (2-14-2001)
Bouffard v. Bouffard, Unpublished Decision (2-14-2001)
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Susan Bouffard appeals a February 25, 2000, judgment of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, designating appellee Robert Bouffard as the residential parent of the parties' son, and also appeals a March 23, 2000, judgment overruling her motion for modification of visitation and denying a request to place into evidence a deposition of an expert:
I. IT IS AN ABUSE OF DISCRETION TO HOLD A PARENT IN CONTEMPT WHEN A 16-YEAR-OLD HAS MADE AN INDEPENDENT AND INFORMED DECISION TO AVOID VISITATION WITH THE NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT.II. IT WAS ERROR FOR THE COURT NOT TO ADMIT THE EXPERT TESTIMONY WHICH WOULD HAVE PROVEN THAT THE FORCED VISITATION WITH THE NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT WOULD HARM THE CHILD.
III. THE COURT LACKED THE AUTHORITY TO SUA SPONTE, AND WITHOUT A MOTION PROPERLY BEFORE THE COURT, MODIFY THE VISITATION ARRANGEMENT.
The parties were divorced on October 3, 1996. There were two children born as issue of the marriage: a daughter, who is now emancipated, and a son, Jason, born May 10, 1983. Jason was thirteen years old at the time of the divorce. Pursuant to the Separation Agreement incorporated into the divorce decree, both parties were designated residential parents of Jason under a shared parenting plan.
Contention continued between the parties following the divorce judgment. Motions for contempt were filed by both parties. Appellee filed a motion seeking to hold appellant in contempt of court for denying his right to visitation with Jason. Appellant responded that Jason does not want to visit his father, and at seventeen years of age, she cannot compel him to do so. Following a hearing, the Court found appellant in contempt of court, with an opportunity to purge, and designated appellee as temporary legal guardian and residential parent in an attempt to alleviate the lack of visitation and companionship with his son.
The first Assignment of Error is overruled.
Assuming for the sake of argument that the court erred in excluding the deposition of Dr. Darnall, any error is harmless. The deposition does not contain a conclusive opinion that visitation would be injurious to Jason. Dr. Darnall stated that forced visitation would not improve the relationship between appellee and his son, and he concluded that a change in attitude must occur before reconciliation would result. A non-custodial parent's right of visitation should be denied only under extraordinary circumstances, such as unfitness of the non-custodial parent, or a showing that visitation would cause harm to the child. Pettryvs. Pettry (1984),
The second Assignment of Error is overruled.
The third Assignment of Error is overruled.
The judgment of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Domestic Relations Division, is affirmed.
Reader, V.J.
McCormac, Visiting P. J. and Grey, V.J. concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.