McCulloh v. Drake

In December 1997, Gerri E. McCulloh (plaintiff) filed for divorce from John W. Drake (defendant). McCulloh alleged that Drake had physically and sexually abused her throughout their three-year marriage and at one point assaulted her by holding a pillow over her face. In October 1998, while the divorce action was pending, McCulloh filed tort claims against Drake alleging negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. McCulloh requested a jury trial for the tort claims. The court denied the request and joined the tort claims with the divorce action. The court then held a trial, during which evidence was introduced concerning the divorce matters and the tort claims. In addition to providing evidence of the pillow incident, McCulloh also introduced evidence that Drake had sexually assaulted her. Following the trial, the court issued the divorce decree but concluded that McCulloh had not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Drake had sexually assaulted her. Additionally, in considering McCulloh’s allegations of negligent and intentional inflict of emotional distress, the court concluded that for all the allegations other than the pillow incident, McCulloh had not established a claim for which relief may be granted, filed timely, or proved by a preponderance of evidence that the incidents had caused distress. Regarding the pillow incident, the court concluded that the incident had occurred and had caused McCulloh distress. The court ordered Drake to pay McCulloh punitive damages. McCulloh and Drake both appealed. McCulloh claimed that the trial court erred by requiring the joinder of her tort claims with the divorce action because, in doing so, the court had denied her the right to a jury trial on the tort claims.