Superior Court Rules that the Defendant to a Protection From Abuse Order Has Standing to File For Contempt Against a Non-Party

In Adams ex rel. T.E.A. v. Adams, 326 A.3d 107 (2024), the Plaintiff was the minor child of the Father, who was the Defendant. The Mother of the minor child filed a Petition for Protection From Abuse, on behalf of the minor child, against the Father. The Father and the minor child, through the Mother, agreed to a Final PFA Order by consent and without a finding of abuse. The PFA Order required the minor child to return certain items of personal property to the Father. Apparently, the child did not do so.

So, the Father filed a Petition for Contempt against the Mother. The PFA statute expressly permits Plaintiffs to file petitions for contempt against Defendants. However, there is no express provision in the PFA Act that permits Defendants to file petitions for contempt against Plaintiffs. Nevertheless, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania held that a trial court has the inherent power to enforce its own orders. Thus, a trial court can find a party in contempt of its order even if there is no statutory provision permitting the same.

Furthermore, the Superior Court held that a Court could find a non-party in contempt of its Order. Although there was no state law on point, the Superior Court found federal law to be persuasive authority and adopted it, “the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has found that "[a] person who is not a party to a proceeding may be held in contempt if he or she has actual knowledge of a court's order and either abets the defendant or is legally identified with him." Id. at 112. The decision is an expansion of state law. Pennsylvania state courts may cite to this opinion as legal support for finding certain non-parties in violation of its orders.

This decision may have far reaching effect, particularly in custody law where third-parties such as new paramours and new spouses are often very involved in child custody cases and perhaps could find themselves and not just their party partner or spouse on the receiving end of a petition for contempt filed by the other parent.