Hauck v. Riehl

Filed 3/11/14 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FIVE

DENNIS K. HAUCK, B247351

Appellant, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BF030864) v.

MICHAEL L. RIEHL,

Respondent.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, David S. Cunningham, Judge. Reversed and remanded with instructions. Dennis K. Hauck, in pro. per., for Appellant. Michael L. Riehl, in pro. per., for Respondent.

A five-year-old child lives with her mother, Brook Bennett-Hauck, and her stepfather, Dennis Hauck (“stepfather”). Her father, Michael Riehl (“father”), has visitation rights. After a confrontation between the two men while father was picking up the child for a visit, father sought an injunction against stepfather pursuant to the provisions of the California Domestic Violence Prevention Act, Family Code1 section 6200 et seq. (“DVPA”). Stepfather maintained that the superior court had no jurisdiction to issue the requested injunction, since he and father did not have one of the relationships specified by the DVPA. The court agreed that the two men alone did not share a specified relationship, but found that stepfather’s inclusion of the child in the petition as a person to be protected provided the necessary nexus to confer jurisdiction on the court. We disagree, and so reverse the order.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Initially, an action was filed to determine the paternity of the minor child. Father was the petitioner in that case, and mother the respondent. Stepfather, who was married to mother, was involuntarily joined in the paternity case as a “Claimant.” On August 8, 2012, father filed a “Request for Domestic Violence Restraining Order.” In it he requested a “stay away” order, pursuant to which stepfather would be ordered to stay away from father, his home, job, vehicle and “the children’s school or child care.” It also included a request that stepfather stay away from the minor child’s home2 and that he be ordered not to do any of the following to father or to the minor child: “Harass, attack, strike, threaten, assault (sexually or otherwise), hit, stalk, molest, destroy personal property, disturb the peace, keep under surveillance or block