E.G. v. A.G.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

SUPREME COURT

In Case No. 2022-0456, E.G. v. A.G., the court on April 7,
2023, issued the following order:

On February 24, 2023, we remanded for the limited purpose of having the
trial court clarify which specific acts it found to have constituted the “course of
conduct” for purposes of RSA 633:3-a, I(a) (Supp. 2022), and whether it relied on
allegations in the petition, which the defendant had not provided in his appendix,
for which there was no testimony at trial. We otherwise retained jurisdiction over
the appeal. On March 13, 2023, the Trial Court (Cross, J.), issued its order on
remand, stating as follows:

After review of the record, the court finds that the evidence
submitted at trial did not establish a course of conduct. Although
the plaintiff alleged in the stalking petition that the defendant
entered her property on two separate occasions, on June 18 and
June 25, 2022 “to fix a thermostat issue and bathroom fan issue,”
she did not, in fact, offer testimony about those incidents. The court
erred and should have denied the final order and failing that, it
should have granted the defendant’s Motion to Reconsider.

Under the circumstances, we have no occasion to decide whether a trial
court may rely upon sworn allegations in a civil stalking petition for which there
was no testimony offered at trial in finding a course of conduct, an issue raised
by the defendant in his brief. We vacate the final order of protection issued by
the trial court in this case.

Vacated.

MacDonald, C.J., and Hicks, Bassett, Hantz Marconi, and Donovan, JJ.,
concurred.

Timothy A. Gudas,
Clerk