Spouses may seek stalking orders in magistrate courts

COLUMBIA, SC — The South Carolina Court of Appeals held that magistrate courts retain jurisdiction over stalking and harassment restraining order requests between spouses, even when a divorce action is pending in family court.

The plaintiff sought a restraining order against her estranged husband in magistrate court, alleging a pattern of unwanted and disturbing conduct that included daily gifts, emails and letters, some containing threats of sexual assault and suicide. She also alleged that her apartment complex had issued a trespass order against the defendant after an altercation with a neighbor and that she feared for her safety and the safety of the couple’s child.

The magistrate court dismissed the petition as a “family court matter,” and the circuit court affirmed. The South Carolina Court of Appeals reversed, concluding that both lower courts misread the statutory framework. The court explained that South Carolina’s Harassment and Stalking Statute expressly authorizes magistrate courts to hear restraining order requests against individuals alleged to have engaged in stalking or harassment. The statute permits “any person” to seek relief and contains no exception for spouses or household members.

The court distinguished the Protection from Domestic Abuse Act, which gives family courts jurisdiction over abuse claims between household members. Although the parties’ marital status brought them within that statute’s definition of household members, the court noted that abuse is separately defined and does not include stalking or harassment. The legislature had amended the domestic abuse statute over time but had not expanded abuse to include those claims.

The court acknowledged that some facts may implicate both domestic abuse and stalking-related conduct. But allegations fitting the harassment and stalking statute do not lose legal viability because the parties are spouses or because a family court case is pending. The court reversed and remanded for consideration of whether the alleged conduct justified relief.