Wood ex rel. Eddy v. Eddy
| Decision Date | 23 July 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-230.,02-230. |
| Citation | 833 A.2d 1243 |
| Parties | Tonya WOOD o/b/o Megan Eddy v. Richard EDDY. |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
Present: AMESTOY, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON and SKOGLUND, JJ., and FREDERIC W. ALLEN, C.J. (Ret.) Specially Assigned.
¶ 1. Mother Tonya Wood appeals on behalf of her daughter from an order of the Chittenden Family Court denying mother's motion for relief from abuse against father Richard Eddy. The court ruled that the definition of abuse under 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(C) rather than § 1101(1)(A) applied to children, and that father's conduct towards his daughter does not qualify as abuse under his subsection. We affirm.
¶ 2. Mother and father divorced in 1997, assigning mother sole custody of their son and daughter and granting father bimonthly parental visitation rights. On May 5, 2002, mother filed an emergency motion for relief from abuse against father under 15 V.S.A. § 1103 on behalf of her thirteen-year-old daughter. On May 16, 2002 mother filed a motion to modify the parental rights and responsibility order contained in their divorce, and the Chittenden Family Court held a final hearing on her motion for relief from abuse. At this hearing, daughter appeared as the only witness, providing the court with the following testimony.
¶ 3. On May 5, 2002 the Eddy children visited their father, who had planned a movie outing for that day. A dispute erupted between father and daughter over when they should leave for the theater. When father told his daughter to finish getting ready quickly, daughter replied that the more he hurried her, the more slowly she would come. Father subsequently attempted to leave without her, pushing daughter into a chair as she followed him towards the door.
¶ 4. Father then drove both children to the theater, asking his daughter to roll down her window. When she refused and pushed her leg against the window crank, father reached over and punched her leg. Upon arrival, daughter demanded her ticket, claiming that she wanted to sit by herself. Father grew angry and took both children home, yelling at her as he drove.
¶ 5. At the house, daughter refused to go to her room as her father ordered, claiming that she wanted to leave the premises and call 911. Father called his daughter's grandmother, who offered to drive her back to the mother's home. She rejected this proposal and again attempted to leave the house. Father picked up daughter by the arms and threw her onto a chair, pushing her arms against her face and causing her gum to bleed. A short while later daughter snuck out the door to a nearby gas station, where she called 911. Aside from her bleeding gum, the police found her free from injury.
¶ 6. Daughter testified that her father had been angry with her on that day, and that he had hit her on previous occasions when she gave him an "attitude." Because these altercations caused daughter physical pain, mother filed a motion under 15 V.S.A. § 1103, which grants quick and temporary relief from the abuse of family or household members. At the hearing, she argued that father's behavior satisfied the definition of abuse in 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(A): "attempting to cause or causing physical harm." This section defines the terms relevant to requests for temporary relief from the abuse of family or household members. Although 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(C) specifically provides a different and more narrow definition of abuse to children, mother claimed that she could prove abuse under either subsection and asked the court to temporarily suspend father's visits with daughter.
¶ 7. Father agreed that he would temporarily refrain from visitation with daughter at her request, but contested the allegation that he had committed child abuse. The trial court agreed with father and rejected mother's interpretation of 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1), concluding that the Legislature intended only 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(C) rather than § 1101(1)(A) to apply to child abuse determinations. The court held that the narrower standard in § 1101(1)(C) reflects not only the need for abuse prevention, but also the desire to preserve parental discretion in disciplinary decisions, a factor not relevant to domestic abuse between adults. Applying § 1101(1)(C), the trial court concluded that father's physical acts did not constitute child abuse as a matter of law.
¶ 8. Mother appealed, arguing that (1) the trial court incorrectly concluded that she lacked standing, as a matter of law, to file for relief under 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(A) on behalf of her daughter, and (2) that she had made out a prima facie case against father under this subsection's definition of abuse. ¶ 9. Plaintiff's first argument that the trial court incorrectly denied her standing to sue under 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(A) conflates two separate legal issues: whether she has standing to sue for her daughter, and which of the statute's differing definitions of abuse applies to her claim. On the former issue, § 1103(a) explicitly confers standing to the mother, providing that "[a]ny family or household member may seek relief from abuse by another family or household member on behalf of him or herself or his or her children by filing a complaint under this chapter." Where the meaning of a statute is this plain on its face, the Court will enforce the statute according to its terms. Conn v. Middlebury Union High Sch. Dist. # 3, 162 Vt. 498, 503, 648 A.2d 1385, 1388 (1994). Because the statute does not, however, explicitly state whether § 1101(1)(A) and § 1101(1)(C) or § 1101(1)(C) alone defines child abuse for purposes of § 1103, resolving this latter issue requires a more extensive examination of the Legislature's intent. In re Margaret Susan P., 169 Vt. 252, 262, 733 A.2d 38, 46 (1999) ().
¶ 10. 15 V.S.A. § 1101(1)(A) broadly defines "abuse" between family or household members as the act of "attempting to cause or causing physical harm." By contrast, § 1101(1)(C) applies only to "abuse to children" and adopts the narrower definition of abuse provided in 33 V.S.A. § 4912:
The broad definition of abuse under § 1101(1)(A) encompasses any claim that one could bring using the more specific requirements of § 1101(1)(C). If the Legislature had intended both definitions to apply to child abuse in a relief from abuse proceeding, it would have had no reason to include § 1101(1)(C) in the statute. Because we will not construe a statute to render a significant part of it pure surplusage, Cantin v. Young, 170 Vt. 563, 564, 742 A.2d 1246, 1247 (1999) (mem.), we must conclude that § 1101(1)(C) alone provides the definition of abuse relevant to relief from abuse hearings involving children.
¶ 11. Mother argues against this result, claiming that due to children's...
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