IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 14-0801

Filed July 22, 2015

SHELLY PARSON,

Petitioner-Appellee,

vs.

JASON PARSON,

Respondent-Appellant.

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Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Chickasaw County, George L. 

Stigler, Judge. 

A husband appeals the court’s issuance of a protective order and its 

decision to place the parties’ child in the mother’s temporary physical care. 

APPEAL DISMISSED.

Judith O’Donohoe of Elwood, O’Donohoe, Braun & White, L.L.P., Charles 

City, for appellant.

Kristy B. Arzberger of Arzberger Law Office, Mason City, for appellee.

Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Mullins, JJ.
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MULLINS, J.

Jason Parson appeals the court’s issuance of a protective order that 

prohibited him from having contact with his wife, Shelly Parson, and also 

temporarily placed the parties’ child in Shelly’s physical care subject to Jason’s 

visitation. He claims Shelly’s petition failed to allege he had ever thrown things at 

Shelly and the evidence failed to demonstrate the specifics of any such incidents. 

He claims the evidence does not support a finding of domestic abuse or that 

there was any present danger to Shelly. He also claims the court erred in 

awarding Shelly temporary physical care. 

Shelly filed a petition for relief from domestic abuse on April 9, 2014. The 

matter went to hearing on April 15, 2014, and the court issued the final domestic 

abuse protective order the same day. The order provided that it would remain in 

effect until April 15, 2015, unless modified, terminated, extended, or suspended. 

While the order was modified permitting Jason to occupy the family home and 

adjusting the timing of the mid-week visitation, the order was not extended 

beyond April 15, 2015. The protective order has now expired.

Our courts will not consider an action if it no longer presents a justiciable 

controversy. Crowell v. State Pub. Defender, 845 N.W.2d 676, 681 (Iowa 2014) 

(“If an appeal no longer presents a justiciable controversy because the disputed 

issue has become academic or nonexistent, the appeal is ordinarily deemed 

moot.”). “[O]ur test of mootness is whether an opinion would be of force or effect

in the underlying controversy. In other words, will our decision in this case have 

any practical legal effect upon an existing controversy?” Grinnell Coll. v. Osborn, 
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751 N.W.2d 396, 398–99 (Iowa 2008) (internal citations and quotation marks 

omitted). Because the decision of the district court to issue the protective order 

no longer has any direct consequences for the parties, the appeal is moot. We 

have considered the exception to the mootness doctrine and have determined it 

does not apply in this case. See In re Guardianship of Kennedy, 845 N.W.2d 

707, 711 (Iowa 2014) (articulating the four-part test courts use to determine 

whether to apply the exception to the mootness doctrine: “(1) the private or public 

nature of the issue; (2) the desirability of an authoritative adjudication to guide 

public officials in their future conduct; (3) the likelihood of the recurrence of the 

issue; and (4) the likelihood the issue will recur yet evade appellate review”). 

The appeal is therefore dismissed. 

APPEAL DISMISSED.