ABUSING THE ABUSE ACT

                                                                                         

By Dorothy K. Phillips
Can brother and sister business partners who do not reside in the same home, and who have no relationship outside of work, seek Protection From Abuse orders against each other?
An en banc panel of the Superior Court has inexplicably answered "yes" in Custer v. Cochran, PICS Case No. 07-1501 (Pa. Super. Sept. 25, 2007) Todd, J., Ford Elliott, P.J. concurring (23 pages), thereby overruling an identical 1996 case, which was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
The Protection From Abuse Act is designed to provide family or household members with a tool to secure court protection from acts of domestic abuse. Section 6102 of the law provides the two key definitions at issue in Custer:
Under the statute, "abuse" is defined as:
"The occurrence of one or more of the following acts between family or household members, sexual or intimate partners or persons who share biological parenthood:
(1) Attempting to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury, serious bodily injury, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault or incest with or without a deadly weapon;
(2) Placing another in reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily injury;
(3) The infliction of false imprisonment;
(4) Physically or sexually abusing minor children;
(5) Knowingly engaging in a course of conduct or repeatedly committing acts toward another person, including following the person, without proper authority, under circumstances which place the person in reasonable fear of bodily injury …"
Section 6102 further defines "family or household members" as "[s]pouses or persons who have been spouses, persons living as spouses or who have lived as spouses, parents and children, other persons related by consanguinity or affinity, current or former sexual or intimate partners or persons who share biological parenthood."
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