Fifth District Reverses Equitable Distribution

The Fifth District Court of Appeal, in Hoye v. Hoye, today reversed a Final Judgment on the grounds that the lower tribunal failed to assign values to all significant assets, and failing to distribute other assets or their full value. In citing Reich and Bussey this case again stands for the proposition that it is error to fail to identify marital assets and their values.

Yet Another Imputation of Income Reversed

The First District Court yesterday, despite approving a finding of over $300,000.00 in dissipated assets, finding voluntary underemployment, finding entitlement to alimony and attorneys' fees, was still forced to reject the imputation of income to the Former Husband in Rabbath v. Farid, finding as is so seemingly common in recent opinions that sufficient competent evidence did not support the level of the imputation, and remanded the matter for reconsideration of the level of income supported by the evidence.

Second District Further Restricts Ordini

The Second District Court, in Oluwek v. Oluwek, today confirmed previous rulings to the effect that evidence payments from family will continue in the future are a requirement to impute income based on Ordini and its progeny. Of interest is that, contrary to prior rulings like Vorcheimer, only the Husband testified below that the payments had ceased and could not continue, and no other evidence was presented on the subject.

Fourth District Interprets F.S. 61.14

The Fourth District Court of Appeal, granting rehearing in French v. French, found error in the lower court's decision not to modify alimony in that case despite finding that a supportive relationship existed in the former wife's current circumstances, and reversed. The Court found that, in determining that a supportive relationship does exist pursuant to §61.14, it is error to not reduce or terminate alimony.

2d DCA Approves Contempt, Rejects Incarceration

The Second District Court, in Pierce v. Pierce, affirmed a finding of contempt and rejected an argument that the lower tribunal should have reduced an alimony award on which contempt was sought prior to the filing of any supplemental petition for modify. They drew the line, however, at permitting the lower tribunal to order incarceration without a separate affirmative finding of ability to pay the purge amount.

2d DCA Rejects Fee Award for Lack of Evidence

The Second District Court ruled on Friday that the nearly forty thousand dollar fee award in Braswell v. Braswell was to be reversed without opportunity for new hearing, in that insufficient evidence was put before the lower court to justify a fee award. The 2d DCA was quite clear that the full invoices and records of fees, in their entirety, as well as testimony from counsel, are a mandatory requirement for any award of fees.

New Amendment to Florida Family Law Rule 12.010

Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.010 states the purpose of the family law rules themselves. It has today seen amendments approved by the Supreme Court available here. In essence the amendment removes any reference to how the rules should be construed and includes in the purpose of the rules the avoidance of multiple cases by the same parties.