In a Decision – D.C. v. M.M., , , (an "Unreported Decision") >> the Court Held:
The Appellate Division vacated the finding of Domestic Violence because isolated communications 30 years after the parties last saw each other was not harassment under the statute.
The parties dated in 1982 and plaintiff alleged defendant assaulted her in 1983 after the relationship ended. Around 2008, defendant emailed plaintiff to ask how she was doing and in 2018, defendant sent plaintiff a Facebook message asking to talk. No other incidents of violence were recounted by plaintiff during her testimony or set forth in her domestic violence complaint. Isolated communications that occurred twenty-five and thirty-five years after the parties last saw one another cannot be considered harassment under the statute. More than twenty-five years elapsed before defendant's first minimal contact and then ten more years passed prior to defendant's second communication. Plaintiff cannot show she was in immediate danger or subject to abuse. At best, plaintiff expressed exasperation at defendant's attempts to communicate with her.
The trial judge also failed to make findings that an FRO was necessary to protect plaintiff from further abuse.