Caplan v. Donovan, 450 Mass. 463 (2008)

The plaintiff was a resident of Massachusetts seeking an abuse prevention order against her nonresident partner. The plaintiff and her partner (the defendant) met in Massachusetts and moved to Florida, where they had a child. The plaintiff took the child to Massachusetts on occasion but the defendant never returned. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant physically abused her and she fled to Massachusetts with her son. She alleged that prior to her escape, the defendant accused her of cheating, called her a whore, and threatened to kill her and the child. He blocked the door when she tried to leave and when she took the phone to call the police, he ripped the phone from her hand and threw it across the room. Once the plaintiff arrived in Massachusetts, the defendant called his friends and the plaintiff’s cell phone several times a day trying to locate her. The plaintiff subsequently filed a complaint in Natick Division of the Massachusetts District Court seeking a protection order. The Court issued an order which granted the plaintiff custody of the child and directed the defendant not to abuse the plaintiff or the child, not to contact them, to surrender his firearms in Florida and to compensate the plaintiff monetarily. On appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court concluded that the Massachusetts long-arm statute did not authorize personal jurisdiction over the defendant, including under provisions the plaintiff invoked. The Court nevertheless held that Massachusetts could issue an abuse prevention order that functioned as a protective, prohibitory determination tied to the protected status of a person domiciled in Massachusetts, even without personal jurisdiction over the defendant. However, the Supreme Judicial Court found that it was a violation of the defendant’s due process rights to order an affirmative obligation on him, including paying money and handing over his firearms, as the Court had no personal jurisdiction over him.

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  • 2008

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Type

Jurisdiction