3d DCA Grants Cert in UCCJEA Matter

The Third District Court of Appeal granted a Petition for Writ of Certiorari on Friday in the case of Karam v. Karam, in which the French court in the island region of Guadeloupe took on jurisdiction of a custody case based on representations that it was the children's "usual and permanent centre of interest," and not under the UCCJEA. The Court detailed the distinction between the federal definition of a "home state" as the state of residence for six prior months and the differing standard in the French Court, and granted cert, finding that the US court should not have relinquished jurisdiction to the foreign jurisdiction.

Oral Findings Sufficient for Child Support Modification

The First District Court today ruled in the case of Shaw v. Nelson that, due to explicit findings made on the record in the Court's oral ruling, the modification of child support made by the lower tribunal was correct. Of interest was the Court's ruling that a party failing to provide discovery was unable to raise an objection based on imprecision in the support calculations resulting from the lack of that discovery.

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.