N.G.C. v. C.J.C.

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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
N.G.C. IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
Appellee
v.
C.J.C.
Appellant No. 2 MDA 2017
Appeal from the Order Entered December 1, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Centre County
Civil Division at No(s): CV 3670-2016
BEFORE: GANTMAN, P.J., LAZARUS, J., and MUSMANNO, J.
MEMORANDUM BY LAZARUS, J.: FILED AUGUST 07, 2017
C.J.C. appeals from the final protection from abuse (“PFA”) order,1
entered against him in the Court of Common Pleas of Centre County,
pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 6102(a)(5). After careful review, we affirm.
C.J.C. and N.G.C. were married in May 2013. The couple lived
together in Newport News, Virginia, where C.J.C. was stationed with the U.S.
Marine Corps. During their marriage, N.G.C. testified that C.J.C.’s actions
“started out as emotionally abusive and then psychological and eventually it
got physical.” N.T. PFA Hearing, 12/01/16, at 4. N.G.C. claimed that C.J.C.
had locked her in closets, used pressure points to hurt her, held her arms
behind her back, told her he could kill her and make it look like an accident,
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1
See 23 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 6101-6122 (Protection from Abuse Act (“PFAA”)).
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and took out a life insurance policy on her. Id. at 4-5, 9. C.J.C. denied
every allegation of physical and psychological abuse.
There was an incident in May 2015, where N.G.C. testified that the
couple fought and C.J.C. bit her, which resulted in C.J.C. being charged with
assault and battery. At trial on these charges, N.G.C. claimed that she
testified to not remembering the incident because C.J.C. threatened her and
she was scared. C.J.C. claimed the couple merely had had an argument that
night and denied threatening N.G.C. not to testify. N.G.C. filed a PFA
complaint against C.J.C. in Virginia; however, after a hearing in August
2015, no order was entered against C.J.C.2 In May 2016, C.J.C. had an
extra-marital affair and asked N.G.C. to move out of the house. While
making arrangements to move out, N.G.C. stayed in a separate bedroom
and testified that one night C.J.C. came into the room and forced her to
have sex with him.
In June 2016, N.G.C. left Virginia to return home to Chester County,
Pennsylvania. On the day N.G.C. left, C.J.C. told her “he would get [her]
back in the next ten years.” Id. at 11-12. N.G.C. testified that for the
month before she left, C.J.C. carried a handgun on him at all times, which
scared her because of C.J.C.’s previous threats. Although the couple did not
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2
N.G.C. testified that the trial judge in Virginia did not grant the PFA order
because there was already a military protective order in place preventing
C.J.C. from contacting N.G.C., thus, there was no need for another one at
that time.
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see each other from the time N.G.C. left Virginia until the instant PFA
hearing on December 1, 2016, N.G.C. claimed that when she first left, C.J.C.
was calling her thirty times a day until N.G.C. blocked his phone number.
C.J.C. also remained in constant email communication with N.G.C.,
admitting to sending her “around a thousand or 2,000 emails.” Id. at 43.
N.G.C. testified that the emails were not threatening, but she felt threatened
because C.J.C. was trying to figure out her location. C.J.C. claimed that his
emails were about business, tax, and logistical issues related to property the
couple owned together, and where he should send N.G.C.’s mail. N.G.C.
testified that she told C.J.C. to send her mail to her grandmother’s house but
C.J.C. continued to ask for her address. N.G.C. did not want C.J.C. to know
where she lived because of his previous threats and felt threatened by the
emails because she believed C.J.C. was looking for her.3
N.G.C. filed a PFA petition against C.J.C. in the Centre County Court of
Common Pleas on October 3, 2016. The court issued a temporary PFA order
and scheduled a hearing for October 12, 2016. The hearing was continued
until December 1, 2016, where the court ultimately entered a final PFA order
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3
N.G.C. has been living in State College, Pennsylvania. C.J.C. stated in an
email that he was coming to State College, which scared N.G.C. because she
never mentioned to him that she was living there. C.J.C. claimed he goes
there “one or two times a year to look over” his grandfather’s property. N.T.
PFA Hearing, 12/1/16, at 45. However, N.G.C. claimed that the
grandfather’s property was thirty miles from State College.
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against C.J.C. for a period of three years. On appeal, C.J.C. raises the
following issue for our review:
Whether the evidence presented at the hearing was sufficient to
support an order of protection from abuse pursuant to the
Pennsylvania [PFAA] where the court based its finding of abuse
on a repeated course of email communication from [C.J.C.] to
[N.G.C.] but [N.G.C.] failed to introduce evidence of any
threatening emails or other communication which placed the
plaintiff in reasonable fear of bodily injury?
Appellant’s Brief, at 6.
“In the context of a PFA order, we review the trial court’s legal
conclusions for an error of law or abuse of discretion.” Drew v. Drew, 870
A.2d 377, 378 (Pa. Super. 2005) (quoting Ferri v. Ferri, 854 A.2d 600, 602
(Pa. Super. 2004)). The purpose of the PFAA is not to punish abusers for
past violent behavior, but to advance the prevention of domestic violence
from abusive perpetrators. Fonner v. Fonner, 731 A.2d 160, 161 (Pa.
Super. 1999). The petitioner has the burden of proving the allegations of
abuse by a preponderance of the evidence under the PFAA. See 23 Pa.C.S.
§ 6107(a). When reviewing a claim that the evidence was insufficient to
support a PFA order,
we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the
petitioner and granting her the benefit of all reasonable
inferences, determine whether the evidence was sufficient to
sustain the trial court’s conclusion by a preponderance of the
evidence.
Fonner, 731 A.2d at 161 (quoting Miller ex rel. Walker v. Walker, 665
A.2d 1252, 1255 (Pa. Super. 1995)).
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A “preponderance of the evidence standard is defined as the greater
weight of the evidence, [i.e.], to tip a scale slightly is the criteria or
requirement for preponderance of the evidence.” Raker v. Raker, 847 A.2d
720, 724 (Pa. Super. 2004). Further, this Court defers to the trial court’s
credibility determinations of the witnesses, and if the findings of the trial
court are supported by competent evidence, we are bound by them. Coda
v. Coda, 666 A.2d 741, 743 (Pa. Super. 1995).
C.J.C. contends that N.G.C. failed to prove abuse by a preponderance
of the evidence because the instant PFA order was based on N.G.C.’s
allegations of past abuse and N.G.C. did not introduce evidence of any
threatening emails or other communication that placed N.G.C. in reasonable
fear of bodily injury. We disagree.
Under the PFAA, abuse is defined as:
The occurrence of one or more of the following acts between
family or household members, sexual or intimate partners or
persons who share biological parenthood:
* * *
(5) Knowingly engaging in a course of conduct or
repeatedly committing acts toward another person,
including following the person, without proper authority,
under circumstances which place the person in reasonable
fear of bodily injury. The definition of this paragraph
applies only to proceedings commenced under this title
and is inapplicable to any criminal prosecutions
commenced under Title 18 (relating to crimes and
offenses).
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23 Pa.C.S.A. §6102(a)(5). Instantly, the trial court reasoned that our
Court’s holding in Buchhalter v. Buchhalter, 959 A.2d 1260 (Pa. Super.
2008), made N.G.C.’s allegations of past abuse “relevant to demonstrate
[N.G.C.’s] state of mind and the manner in which she would receive any
future threats.” Trial Court Opinion, 02/13/17, at 2.
In Buchhalter, we concluded that past acts of violence are significant
in determining the reasonableness of a PFA petitioner’s fear. Buchhalter,
959 A.2d at 1264. The trial court, as fact finder, made a credibility
determination as to N.G.C.’s testimony regarding C.J.C.’s alleged past
abuse, and weighed the evidence accordingly. Although C.J.C. claims his
thousands of non-threatening emails do not constitute a course of conduct
that placed N.G.C. in reasonable fear of bodily injury, N.G.C. testified to past
incidents of abuse, and C.J.C.’s threat of getting even with N.G.C. in the
next ten years, which occurred just six months prior to the issuance of the
instant PFA. See Raker, supra (petitioner proved imminent fear of serious
bodily injury under section 6102(a)(2) where alleged abuser, who lived on
other side of duplex, entered petitioner’s side of duplex in middle of night
and fought with son-in-law, and petitioner testified to various other incidents
of violence that occurred only four months prior).
Moreover, N.G.C. testified that she is afraid to be alone with C.J.C.
because of his previous threats and felt threatened by C.J.C.’s repeated
emails because she feared he would find her location and go to her
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apartment. Because this Court has held that “[i]t is possible for a person to
be placed in reasonable fear of imminent bodily injury based on telephone
calls, particularly when coupled with the alleged abuser’s past history of
violence,” we likewise believe abuse can be established under section
6102(a) based on an abundance of emails accompanying past abusive
behavior. Burke ex rel. Burke v. Bauman, 814 A.2d 206, 209 (Pa. Super.
2002). See also T.K. v. A.Z., 157 A.3d 974 (Pa. Super. 2017) (affirming
PFA order where sufficient evidence established appellant continually stalked
and harassed petitioner, although petitioner did not use specific word of
“fear” when she testified, because petitioner’s testimony clearly indicated
strong concern for her safety).
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to N.G.C., we find
that the evidence was sufficient to sustain the trial court’s decision by a
preponderance of the evidence. Fonner, supra.Order affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 8/7/2017
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