J.N. v. N.S. (2020)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER PURSUANT TO RULE 1:28

N.S. appeals from a September 7, 2018 District Court order extending an abuse prevention order for a period of one year. He asks “that this restraining order should be removed,” but has failed to articulate a legal basis for doing so. His brief contains a series of complaints against J.N. but no argument as to how the judge erred or abused his discretion in extending the abuse prevention order. Moreover, N.S.'s appendix does not include a transcript of the September 7, 2018 hearing.²

The inadequacies of N.S.'s brief and record appendix preclude our substantive review. See Mass. R. A. P. 16 (a) (4), as amended, 367 Mass. 921 (1975) (briefs “shall contain the contentions of the appellant with respect to the issues presented, and the reasons therefor, with citations to the authorities, statutes and parts of the record relied on” and we “need not pass upon questions or issues not argued in the brief”);³ Kellogg v. Board of Registration in Med., 461 Mass. 1001, 1003 (2011) (brief failed to support claims of error with sufficient legal argument, factual detail, or citation to authority, providing “an insufficient basis for this court reasonably to consider [the appellant's] claims”); Davis v. Tabachnick, 425 Mass. 1010 (1997) (court refused to address merits of claims where record appendix did not contain necessary materials; parties appearing pro se held to same standards as litigants represented by counsel).

Order entered September 7, 2018, affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

2.   It does contain a transcript of a January 2, 2018 Waltham District Court hearing in which the court denied N.S.'s ex parte request for an abuse prevention order against J.N. and a partial transcript of a February 23, 2018 deposition of J.N., apparently undertaken in the context of a Probate and Family Court proceeding. These are not the relevant transcripts for review of the District Court's September 7, 2018 order.

3.   After this appeal entered rule 16 (a) was amended but without, relevant here, substantive change. See Mass. R. A. P. 16 (a) (9) (A), as appearing in 481 Mass. 1629-1630 (2019).