State ex rel. Hero Homes JV2, L.L.C. v. Scott

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 3153

Syllabus

Prohibition; mandamus; personal jurisdiction; added party; municipal housing court; housing offenses; Cleveland Cod.Ord. 367.131; community control; conditions of community control; appeal; adequate remedy at law; stay order; mootness; county fiscal officer; discretion to issue mandamus. When a company pled no contest to owning properties without registering with the Ohio Secretary of State, Cleveland Cod.Ord. 367.131, the Cleveland Municipal Housing Court imposed community-control sanctions on the company and added a sister company to the case. One of the conditions of community control was not to sell, transfer, or gift any of the companies' properties without court approval. The company appealed, and the court of appeals issued a stay. The municipal housing court ruled that the company had violated community control and imposed more restrictive sanctions, one of which was to file the order with the county fiscal officer to prevent further transfers of property. The company appealed that order and obtained another stay. The municipal housing court judge held another community-control-status conference after the stay but adjourned the hearing to discern the scope of the stay. The court took no further actions after that. The companies brought prohibition and mandamus actions to prohibit the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the sister company, to \claw back\ the order to county fiscal officer, and to prohibit the judge from violating the stay orders. This court denied the writ of prohibition for lack of personal jurisdiction because appeal was an adequate remedy at law and because, for prohibition to issue for lack of personal jurisdiction, there must be a failure to comply with the minimum contacts requirement for constitutional due process. Because the clerk had filed an affidavit of fact declaring the filing with the fiscal officer null and void, the \claw-back\ claim was moot. The court of appeals declined to issue a mandamus to comply with the stay order