Background
Bexley Gateway Plaza, the commercial landlord, brought a forcible entry and detainer action against tenant KD Franchises-Bexley, alleging unpaid rent and late fees for premises in Bexley, Ohio. The landlord sought immediate possession of the premises.
Before the scheduled hearing, KD Franchises moved to stay the case under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. It asserted that its sole member and the lease guarantor, D’Juan Armstead, had active military-duty orders. The trial court denied the stay, reasoning that Armstead was not a party to the eviction action and that the landlord sought possession rather than access to his assets. The tenant appealed the denial and the denial of reconsideration.
The Court’s Holding
The Tenth District dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. It held that the order denying a stay of the forcible entry and detainer hearing was interlocutory, not a final appealable order under Ohio law.
The order neither granted nor denied possession, determined the landlord’s possessory claim, nor affected a substantial right in a way that could not be remedied later. The tenant may appeal after a judgment on possession and then challenge both the denial of the stay and any claimed error in proceeding with the hearing. Because the reconsideration order concerned the same interlocutory ruling, it too was not appealable. The court did not reach the SCRA issue.
Key Takeaways
- A denial of a motion to stay an Ohio eviction proceeding ordinarily is not immediately appealable.
- In a forcible entry and detainer action, the possession judgment—not a procedural stay ruling—is generally the immediately appealable order.
- The court dismissed on jurisdictional grounds and expressed no view on whether the SCRA protected the tenant or its guarantor.
Why It Matters
Commercial tenants seeking to delay an eviction based on servicemember protections must account for Ohio’s final-order requirement. An attempted interlocutory appeal of a denied stay will not ordinarily halt the possessory case.
The decision also preserves later review: after a possession judgment, the tenant may challenge the stay denial and the trial court’s decision to conduct the hearing.