The Michigan Court of Appeals in an unpublished decision (Docket # 35281) held that the trial court did not deprive Father of his right to due process.
Father argued that he was denied his right to due process when the trial court entered ex parte orders at the commencement of the divorce action violating his due process rights.
The court held that his due process argument was “limited to a claim of a violation of procedural due process, not whether the trial court violated his right to due process by failing to adequately consider the facts of this case before entering its child custody order.” The trial court granted plaintiff’s motions for ex parte orders, and subsequently held a hearing on defendant’s objections to the ex parte orders for exclusive use of the marital home and the ex parte order for custody. “Defendant had notice and an opportunity to be heard after the ex parte orders were issued. He received all that due process requires.” Defendant contended, nonetheless, that after the ex parte “motions were filed and orders granted he was at such a significant legal disadvantage that it violated due process.”
The Court of Appeals found nothing in the record to support his argument that the allegations in the ex parte motions “biased the trial court against defendant or that the trial court found defendant to be a ‘bad man’ before defendant ‘was ever able to get in front of the judge.’ The trial court made best-interest findings after a lengthy trial and supported its findings with facts.”
The decision of the trial court was affirmed.