Title: Hillman v. Brown

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Hillman v. Brown, Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio-1652.] 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2012-OHIO-1652 
HILLMAN, APPELLANT, v. BROWN, JUDGE, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Hillman v. Brown, Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio-1652.] 
Appeals—Courts of appeals—Jurisdiction—Complaint seeking show-cause order 
filed in court of appeals separately from appeal of case from which 
allegation of contempt arose invokes neither original nor appellate 
jurisdiction of court—Court of appeals properly dismissed complaint. 
(No. 2011-1790—Submitted April 4, 2012—Decided April 17, 2012.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Franklin County, No. 11AP-22. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals dismissing the 
complaint filed by appellant, Robert L. Hillman, for a show-cause contempt order 
against appellee, Judge Susan Brown of the Tenth District Court of Appeals, 
based on a judgment she entered in consolidated appeals involving Hillman.  
Hillman v. Brown, 10th Dist. No. 11AP-22 (Sept. 29, 2011). 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
{¶ 2} As constitutionally created courts, courts of appeals have inherent 
power to punish contempt.  See State ex rel. Johnson v. Perry Cty. Court, 25 Ohio 
St.3d 53, 54, 495 N.E.2d 16 (1986), quoting State ex rel. Turner v. Albin, 118 
Ohio St. 527, 161 N.E.2d 792 (1928), paragraph one of the syllabus.  But Hillman 
did not file his contempt motion in the pertinent appeals before the court of 
appeals;  instead, he sought to invoke the original jurisdiction of the court of 
appeals with a complaint for a show-cause contempt order in a separate, new case. 
{¶ 3} Hillman’s complaint thus invoked neither the original nor the 
appellate jurisdiction of the court of appeals under the Ohio Constitution, Article 
IV, Section 3(B), and was properly dismissed.  See Brock v. Niemeyer, 130 Ohio 
St.3d 80, 2011-Ohio-4704, 955 N.E.2d 981, ¶ 1. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’DONNELL, 
LANZINGER, CUPP, and MCGEE BROWN, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
Robert L. Hillman, pro se. 
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Eric Butcher-Lyden and Damian 
W. Sikora, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee. 
______________________