Ying v. Heide, 2013 VT
81
Raising children requires a certain amount of tact and
discretion. What works for one child
will not for the other. One of the magic
devices that parents often employ is the five-count—“I’m going to count down
from five, and before I get to zero, you better be upstairs.” But the trick of the five-count is that the
child has to understand what zero means and the consequences it implies. It also requires the proper circumstances. When the child is overtired, intractable, and
unable to separate emotion from process, you don’t want to start counting. It’s not fair to you or to the child, who
simply can’t comply. In those cases, you
just grab the kid, give them a hug, and carry them upstairs.
The issue in front of the SCOV today is not so
different. In 2012, Plaintiff sought to eject
her ex-husband from property that she owned and had leased to him. The Defendant disputed the terms of the lease
and filed a set of counter-claims. The
case was scheduled for a preliminary status conference in June 2012, but attorney
for plaintiff asked the court to move the hearing to July. The trial court re-set it for July 5th, but
then plaintiff and her attorney failed to appear. At the hearing, counsel for defendant asked that
the case be dismissed and withdrew his counterclaims. The trial court granted the motion, largely
as a punitive measure toward plaintiff’s counsel for failing to attend.