MARGARET ANDERSON, PETITIONER,
v.
MICHAEL ANDERSON, RESPONDENT

Fla. 4th DCA | 1985-05-22
No. 85-458
DOWNEY and HURLEY, JJ., concur.
470 So. 2d 52 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1985) Positive Treatment
Cited by 3 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law by ordering the wife to undergo physical and psychiatric examinations.


Headnotes

[1] A party's physical or mental condition is not in controversy in a dissolution proceeding when the relief sought is limited to equitable distribution and partition of prop…

[2] To compel a physical or mental examination, the movant must make an affirmative showing that the condition for which examination is sought is genuinely in controversy and…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

In a dissolution proceeding, the wife petitioned for review of an order compelling her to submit to physical and mental examinations. The wife sought …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
GLICKSTEIN, Judge.

GLICKSTEIN, Judge.

Margaret Anderson petitions for review by certiorari of an order in a dissolution proceeding, compelling her to submit to physical and mental examinations. We grant her petition and quash the order. Petitioner filed for dissolution of marriage and sought an order restraining the husband, so as to protect her safety. She sought a special equity in the marital property and the partition of jointly owned property, but requested no alimony.

The issue is whether the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law when it ordered the wife to undergo physical and psychiatric examinations. Given the circumstances of this case, we conclude that it did.

Under rule 1.360(a), Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, the trial court may order physical or mental examinations on a showing of good cause when the mental or physical condition of a party is in controversy.

What constitutes good cause or places the mental or physical condition of a party in controversy is not made entirely clear by Florida case law. Fruh v. State, Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services, 430 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), cites earlier eases as the basis for defining “in controversy” as meaning that the party’s condition is directly involved in some material element of the cause of action or defense, and “good cause” as meaning that the condition could not be evidenced adequately without the assistance of expert medical testimony. Id. at 584.

The federal case of Schlagenhauf v. Holder, 379 U.S. 104, 85 S.Ct. 234, 13 L.Ed.2d 152 (1964), sheds some light on the meanings of these terms as used in rule 35, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which is similar to our rule. The court said that while there must not always be an evidentiary hearing, and that the movant need not prove his case on the merits, mere conclu-sory allegations of pleadings and mere relevance to the case will not suffice. There must be an affirmative showing by the movant that each condition for which examination is sought really and genuinely is in controversy; and that good cause exists for ordering same.

When the above tests are applied, the husband’s claims here that the wife drinks, abuses drugs, or is susceptible to undue influence are irrelevant to any issue being litigated.

The trial court is not being asked to award the wife permanent periodic alimony, rehabilitative alimony, or custody of minor children. She apparently has an annual income of $400,000 from a trust, and seeks no support from the husband. She has recently been held competent, upon competency proceedings in the same action. Her emotional or physical health, if she is competent, has, in our view, no bearing on the issue of the marriage being irretrievably broken; or her having a special equity in marital property because of the money she brought to the marriage; or the partitioning of jointly held property, which is the extent of the relief she seeks. There is no case law that the parties have found or that we can find that would indicate a party’s physical or emotional health can be in controversy in a dissolution proceeding where the relief sought is so limited.

The husband appears to believe that his defense — that the wife may be unduly influenced and her health in jeopardy — justifies compulsory examination of her. He suggests the wife needs his guidance and care. Since her competency has been recently established, we fail to see how the information sought to be obtained via the compulsory examinations bears on any material element in controversy. Anything short of incompetency of the wife would appear of no avail to the husband’s defense, granted, arguendo, that such examinations can be ordered to support a defense of the husband.

DOWNEY and HURLEY, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Broward Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. Cruz, 761 So. 2d 388 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)
    …y, he places his condition in controversy, and good cause for the examination is therefore shown. See Dominique v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 642 So. 2d 594 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994), rev. denied, 651 So. 2d 1193 (Fla.1995); see also Anderson v. Anderson, 470 So. 2d 52, 53 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985)(there must be an affirmative showing by the movant that each condition for which examination is sought really and genuinely is in controversy and that good cause exists for ordering same). It is not enough that the defendants…
  • Pariser v. Pariser, 601 So. 2d 291 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992)
    …reasonableness test of Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So. 2d 1197, 1202-03 (Fla.1980). While petitioner maintains that the trial court was required to hold an evidentiary hearing, an evidentiary hearing is not always required. Cf. Anderson v. Anderson, 470 So. 2d 52 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985). A review of this record reveals sufficient information that based on Cana-karis we cannot say that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law in ordering these tests. WARNER and FARMER, JJ., concur. GLIC…
  • Reynolds v. Dade Cnty. Sch. Bd. & Ymca of Greater Miami, 621 So. 2d 748 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993)
    …Fla. R.Civ.P. 1.360(a)(2); see Williams v. Williams, 550 So. 2d 166, 167 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989) (“to show ‘good cause’ for the examination, it must be demonstrated that expert medical testimony is necessary to resolve the issue.”); Anderson v. Anderson, 470 So. 2d 52 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985); thus, the order compelling the examination constitutes a departure from the essential requirements of law. Certiorari granted; order quashed.…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw