Court Opinion

ID: 9735334
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:09:36.692848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:57.372329
License: Public Domain

RILEY, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The term family means a collective body of persons who form one household, under one head, and is subject to one domestic government, and who have reciprocal, natural, and moral duties to support and care for each other. Cole v. Cole (1988), Ind.App., 517 N.E.2d 1248, 1250, citing Crump v. Coleman (1979), 181 Ind.App. 414, 391 N.E.2d 867. It is clear to me that Lucy has reciprocal, natural and moral duties owing to the Rzeszuteks and not Mr. Beck. I believe that IND.CODE 84-4-5.1 as applied does violate the Rzeszutek's right to privacy and family integrity. This court has held that the "Constitution recognizes a fundamental right to family integrity." In The Matter of G. Joseph (1981), Ind.App., 416 N.E.2d 857, 859.
A "person," (a human being aged 18 years or older or an emancipated minor) may petition the court to protect a "member of the petitioner's household." A person is only one human being and that person is asserting a right to be protected. In asserting this right to be protected he or she is also stating that because he or she is the head of this "domestic government" that he or she has a duty to protect others within his or her care. Lucy does not fall within this broad penumbra of protection. She is not a member of this household through blood or marriage and no one in the Beck household has a duty to support or care for her.
The only common sense way to approach the interpretation of "member of household" in this statute is to exclude those non-family | adult members who may be living under one roof for whatever reason. If they wish to assert the right to be protected they must petition the court for their own safety.
1.C. 84-4-5.1-2(b)(7) allows for the court to order counseling or other social services for the petitioner, respondent, or both. By adding this provision, the legislature has allowed the court to intervene and try to provide services to those people in need of direction. If we allow Lucy to hide behind the coattails of Mr. Beck we will never know if she is voluntarily participating in this request for protection nor will the court ever be able to order counseling or other intervention in a potentially explosive situation. If each adult non-family member of a household is allowed to be "protected" by a human being 18 or older or emancipated minor living in the same household, the intent of the legislature has been cireumvented because that "member of a household" will never have to appear in court and be questioned as to his or her intent or needs.