Allen v. Allen (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-056-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-643 Appeals Court JULIA ALLEN vs. BARBARA ALLEN. No. 15-P-643. Suffolk. February 24, 2016. – May 19, 2016. Present: Green, Wolohojian, & Henry, JJ. Abuse Prevention. Moot Question. Practice, Civil, Moot case. Domestic Violence Record Keeping System. Complaint for protection from abuse filed in the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on April 3, 2015. A hearing to extend an abuse prevention order was had before Robert J. McKenna, Jr., J. Kathleen M. McCarthy for the defendant. GREEN, J. Does an appeal lie from an ex parte abuse prevention order issued pursuant to G. L. c. 209A, in circumstances where the order was terminated ten days later at a hearing after notice pursuant to c. 209A, § 4? We conclude that termination of the ex parte order at the hearing after notice, accompanied by an order directing law enforcement agencies “to destroy all record of such vacated order,” renders the defendant’s appeal moot. G. L. c. 209A, § 7, as appearing in St. 1990, c. 403, § 8. We accordingly dismiss the appeal. Background. On April 3, 2015, the plaintiff filed a complaint for protection from abuse pursuant to G. L. c. 209A, seeking a restraining order against the defendant (her mother). In the affidavit filed with her complaint, the plaintiff averred that: “Back in 2008, I cut ties w/ her and asked her to no longer contact me. Since then, I had to change my phone number, I’ve moved multiple times, had to keep an external mailbox in order to keep my residential address private, but she keeps finding me & mailing me things. For years I’ve returned them to the sender. Once I moved to Boston there was no mail until 4/3/15 when she mailed a package to my work address — I’ve never given her the address, but she somehow tracked it down.” A judge of the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department held a hearing that day, at which the plaintiff was the only party present and the only witness. The colloquy at the hearing added little to the averments in the affidavit.[1] On the basis of the plaintiff’s presentation, the judge issued an ex parte order, based on a determination “that there is a substantial likelihood of immediate danger of abuse,” which ordered the defendant (i) not to abuse the plaintiff; (ii) not to […]