Ohio Supreme Court: Pike County couple can seek restitution for court-ordered transfer of ownership of their land

Court News Ohio

The Supreme Court of Ohio today permitted a Pike County couple to challenge a lower court judgment that ordered real estate they owned to be taken to satisfy the debts of another couple who was buying that land through a “land contract ” but did not own it outright.

In reversing a Fourth District Court of Appeals decision, a Supreme Court majority found that the appellate court’s judgment that Glenn and Sharon Nickell’s appeal was moot was in error. The appeals court had dismissed the case because a trial court had already transferred their land to creditors by the time their case was heard, and the Nickells did not post a bond to prevent the transfer.

Writing for the Court majority, Justice Jennifer Brunner explained the Fourth District relied on a 1990 Supreme Court decision that, when a trial court’s judgment has been voluntarily satisfied, an appeal of it is moot. 

However, this case is different, she wrote, because the Nickells did not voluntarily agree to give up real estate that had been ordered transferred to creditors of people whom the Nickells were permitting to buy that land over time. The Supreme Court ruled that the Nickells can proceed to challenge the land transfer or seek restitution for what was taken from them, she concluded.

Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy and Justices R. Patrick DeWine, Joseph T. Deters, Daniel R. Hawkins, and Megan E. Shanahan joined Justice Brunner’s opinion. Justice Patrick F. Fischer concurred in judgment only.