Articles Posted in Divorce

Published on: | by

One of the biggest steps in any divorce process, for a couple without children, is the division of property. A marital settlement agreement puts all of the terms of a couple’s property division decisions into writing. Once a couple completes a marital settlement agreement and the court approves it, there are only a few situations where it can be set aside. One Broward County husband’s situation did not fit into any of the categories recognized by the law, so the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a trial court’s decision rejecting the husband’s request to start over.

The couple, Gilbert Hall and Susan Hall, met for mediation in 2012. The mediator used a “shuttle style” of mediation, meaning that the husband and his attorney sat in one room, the wife and her attorney sat in another, and the mediator “shuttled” back and forth between the two rooms. The mediation eventually produced a resolution on all issues, which was put into writing in a marital settlement agreement.
Continue reading ›

by
Posted in: Divorce
Published on:
Updated:

Published on: | by

It may sound surprising, but there are some instances when a party to a family law case in Florida may lose his right to have an appeal of his case even considered. That was the case recently for one Palm Beach County husband, when the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered a dismissal of his appeal of a contempt finding unless the husband achieved “substantial compliance” with the trial court’s support orders within 30 days.

The couple, Michel Whissell and Sheronne Whisell, sought a divorce in Palm Beach County. As part of that case, the trial court ordered the husband to make temporary support payments to the wife. The husband, however, did not make these support payments. On multiple occasions, the wife initiated contempt proceedings. Eventually, the husband racked up multiple contempt findings and a support arrearage in excess of $100,000.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Some spouses like to joke with their partners by reciting the well-worn humorous phrase, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is ours.” Florida law allows spouses to have certain assets that belong to that spouse alone. However, the law creates certain triggers that, if they occur, convert a non-marital asset into a marital one. That’s what happened to one Polk County woman, whose $78,000 in cash gifts from her mother were, according to the 2d District Court of Appeal, marital because she commingled that cash in an account that also contained marital funds.

Roberta Dravis’ mother was very generous toward her daughter. Every Christmas and birthday, the mother gave her gifts of cash. Dravis deposited these gifts in an account at CenterState Bank that she and her husband, Dean Dravis, jointly owned. By the time the couple separated, the total sum of the mother’s gifts to her daughter amounted to $78,000.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Earlier this summer, the US Supreme Court ruled on the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. In that decision, the court narrowly ruled that the 14th Amendment recognized a constitutional right to marriage for same-sex couples. As part of this ruling, not only must states issue marriages to same-sex couples seeking to unite in Florida, the state must also legally recognize as valid same-sex marriages and civil unions granted by other states. This requirement that all states recognize all validly issued same-sex marriages provides a degree of clarity when it comes to same-sex divorces, and it resolves the legal limbo that entrapped some couples living in Florida.

These couples included Keiba Lynn Shaw and Mariama Changamire Shaw, who married in Massachusetts in 2010. A year after their wedding, the couple moved to the Tampa Bay area. In the fall of 2013, they separated and began seeking a divorce early in 2014. The divorce was uncontested, with the couple having no children and completing a settlement agreement to divide their assets and debts. Courts uniformly refused to grant them a divorce, however, concluding that a Florida court could not dissolve their marriage because, under the Florida Constitution, the marriage never validly existed in the first place.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

The law regarding alimony contains several nuances. One of these is a statutory rule that says that the amount of evidence a spouse must offer in order to obtain permanent alimony differs based upon how long the couple was married. This rule recently led to the reversal of a Tampa court’s decision to deny a wife permanent alimony, since the 2d District Court of Appeal concluded that the lower court denied the wife’s permanent alimony request based upon the wrong standard of proof.

In Irene and Randy Banks’ case, theirs was a long-term marriage, having wedded before NASA launched the first space shuttle or the University of Miami won its first national football championship. The couple separated in 2011, with the wife filing for divorce shortly before the year’s end. At the time of their divorce, the husband made $90,000 a year and received a military pension that paid him almost $2,300 per month. The wife was unemployed but, in the trial court’s opinion, had a ability to earn $25,000 per year.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Two of the most important decisions many parents will make regarding their children center around the children’s education and their religious affiliation. Two recent cases, one from the 3d District Court of Appeal and one from the 2d DCA, demonstrate the importance of documenting the entirety of your and your spouse’s agreement regarding your children’s education, and of understanding exactly how tuition payments may affect child support calculations.

If both parents agree that their child (or children) should attend private school for some or all of their education, the marital settlement agreement between the parents should be very clear about what the couple agreed to, since when an agreement is silent on an issue, the courts will construe that to mean that the couple did not resolve that issue.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

Divorce can bring out many complicated issues, particularly when it comes to money. On the one hand, a nefarious spouse may try to deplete assets before the case is finalized. On the other hand, spouses continue to have bills and financial obligations that often require dissipating marital assets to pay. Regardless of what a spouse’s true motives may have been, the dissipation of marital assets should only be included in an equitable distribution of assets if the trial court specifically finds that the dissipating spouse engaged in intentional misconduct, the 4th District Court of Appeal recently ruled.

Bonnie Jean Platt filed for a divorce from her husband, Minor J. Platt, Jr. While the case was pending, the wife allegedly took several guns and pieces of jewelry and sold them. After the sales, the court heard evidence regarding the value of the sold items, and it concluded that the guns were worth $6,500 and the jewelry had a value of $6,200. Having made this determination, the trial court then included that $12,700 as an amount that the wife received in calculating the couple’s equitable distribution.
Continue reading ›

Published on: | by

In the most recent case involving same-sex couples who married in other states and seek to divorce in Florida, the 2d District Court of Appeal concluded that a southwest Florida trial court was wrong to dismiss a woman’s dissolution of marriage petition. The court ruling decided that, under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Florida courts should entertain same-sex spouses’ divorce petitions just as they would hear a petition for dissolution filed by a heterosexual spouse who married in another state.

This case involved Danielle and Krista Brandon-Thomas, who married in Massachusetts in the fall of 2012. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Florida, but the marriage did not last. Just a year after their wedding, Danielle filed for divorce in Lee County. Krista, in a position supposed by the Florida Attorney General, asked the trial court to throw out the case, arguing that Florida law did not recognize same-sex marriages and Florida courts had no power to dissolve that which, under the terms of the Florida Statutes, never existed.
Continue reading ›

by
Posted in: Divorce
Published on:
Updated:

Published on: | by

Sometimes, one of the most challenging aspects in a marital settlement arrangement, other than child custody, is deciding what to do with the marital home. In many cases, both spouses jointly own the property, but only one spouse still lives in the marital home and that spouse desires not to move. One way to deal with such a situation is to give the spouse desiring to stay an opportunity to buy out that spouse’s one-half ownership of the home. One example of this situation was a case recently decided by the 4th District Court of Appeal.

The case involved the 2013 divorce of a Broward County couple. The couple reached an agreement, which the trial court approved, regarding the marital home. That agreement called for putting the house up for sale, but it also gave the husband a right of first refusal, meaning that, once an offer was received on the home, the husband had the right to match the offer and purchase the property himself, as long as he paid the wife cash.
Continue reading ›

by
Posted in: Divorce
Published on:
Updated:

Published on: | by

A Florida trial court’s award of alimony to a wife was thrown out recently by the 2d District Court of Appeal for being too low. The appeals court concluded that the trial court’s outcome, if put into action, would leave too great a disparity between the ex-spouses and would force the wife into a lifestyle below that which she enjoyed during the couple’s marriage.

A couple decided to end their 28-year marriage in 2011. Although the wife had a master’s degree and had been the primary earner through much of the marriage, her job at the time of the divorce paid only $29,000 annually. The husband was making $280,000 per year by 2011.
Continue reading ›

by
Posted in: Alimony
Published on:
Updated: