ALICIA MARIA IRIBAR, APPELLANT,
v.
MANUEL IRIBAR, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1987-07-21
No. 86-2125
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and HENDRY and HUBBART, JJ.
510 So. 2d 1023 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1987) Caution
Cited by 58 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 did not abuse its discretion in dividing marital assets or awarding rehabilitative alimony, but did abuse its discretion in denying the wife's application for attorney's fees and costs.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court does not abuse its discretion in refusing to award a spouse the other spouse's interest in the marital home when the marriage is short-term, produces no chi…

[2] A trial court does not abuse its discretion in refusing to award a spouse an automobile as lump sum alimony when no automobile is available for distribution and assets ar…

Previewing 2 of 5 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

The wife appealed a final judgment of marriage dissolution, challenging the denial of lump sum alimony for the husband's interest in the marital home …

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
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

The wife Alicia maria Iribar appeals a final judgment of marriage dissolution entered below. She claims error as to three aspects of the final judgment, namely, (1) the trial court’s refusal to award her, as lump sum alimony, (a) the husband’s one-half interest in the marital home and (b) an automobile; (2) the trial court’s eighteen-month rehabilitative alimony award, contending that the award should have been for five years; and (3) the trial court’s refusal to award her attorney’s fees and costs. We affirm on the first two points, but reverse as to the third point.

First, we see no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s refusal to award the wife the husband’s one-half interest in the marital home. The trial court could have reasonably concluded, as it did, that this asset should be equally divided between the parties because (a) the marital home was the only substantial asset acquired by the parties during the marriage, (b) the marriage was a short-term one (ten years) which produced no children, and (c) the wife made no significant contribution to her husband’s career, as both parties pursued their own career paths during the marriage. See Hiler v. Hiler, 442 So. 2d 373, 374 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Bullard v. Bullard, 413 So. 2d 1238,1239 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); Gorman v. Gorman, 400 So. 2d 75, 79 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981). We further see no abuse of discretion in refusing to award the wife an automobile as lump sum alimony because (a) the parties owned no automobile to be distributed to the wife, and (b) the trial court otherwise equitably distributed the assets of the marriage. See Poitier v. Poitier, 458 So. 2d 428 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Maggio v. Maggio, 405 So. 2d 1078, 1079 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981); Feldman v. Feld-man, 390 So. 2d 1231, 1232 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).

Second, we see no merit in the wife’s attack on the rehabilitative alimony award. The award was strictly a bridge-the-gap type of award as the wife is presently employed, has more than adequate employment skills, and needs nothing to be “rehabilitated” to, other than to ease her transition from a married to a single status. The trial court was well within its discretion in deciding that an eighteen-month award at $1,000 a month was adequate to achieve this transition for the wife. Murray v. Murray, 374 So. 2d 622 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979).

Third, we conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to grant the wife’s application for attorney’s fees and costs as plainly (1) the wife was in considerable need of such an award, and (2) the husband’s financial position to pay for such fees and costs was superior to the wife's inasmuch as his annual income exceeds hers by over $100,000. The trial court should, therefore, have ruled at the conclusion of the final hearing that the wife was entitled to an award of attorney’s fees and costs as requested by the wife’s counsel, and, thereafter, conducted a separately noticed evidentiary hearing to determine the reasonable value of the subject attorney's fees and costs.

Fourth, we specifically disagree with the trial court’s legal basis for denying the attorney’s fees and costs, namely, that (a) no testimony had been presented at the final hearing as to the reasonable value of the subject attorney’s fees and costs, and (b) no reservation of jurisdiction was sought to conduct a separate hearing at which time the above evidence would be elicited. In the first place, the above-stated lack of evidence was totally irrelevant to the issue of the wife’s entitlement to attorney’s fees and costs, which was otherwise fully established at the final hearing. In the second place, the wife’s application for attorney’s fees and costs implicitly carried with it a request for a separate hearing on the amount of attorney’s fees and costs, in the event the court ruled that the wife was entitled to such fees and costs at the final hearing; a separate request for a reservation of jurisdiction to conduct such a hearing was therefore unnecessary. Indeed, such a separate hearing is entirely appropriate in marriage dissolution actions be cause a party who seeks such fees cannot be expected to adduce expert testimony at the final hearing as to the reasonableness of the attorney services rendered without first knowing the results which the attorney obtained in the case; these results cannot be known until after the final hearing. See Buckingham, v. Buckingham, 492 So. 2d 858, 861 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Agudo v. Agudo, 449 So. 2d 909, 911 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Travieso v. Travieso, 447 So .2d 940, 943-44 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984), quashed in part, approved in part, 474 So. 2d 1184 (Fla.1985); Novak v. Novak, 429 So. 2d 414, 415 (Fla. 4th DCA), pet. for review denied, 438 So. 2d 833 (Fla.1983); Feldman v. Feldman, 390 So. 2d 1231,1232 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).

The final judgment of marriage dissolution is affirmed, save for the denial of an award of attorney’s fees and costs for the wife. The denial of such an award is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the trial court with directions to (1) grant the wife’s application for attorney’s fees and costs; (2) conduct a hearing on (a) the reasonable value of the attorney services rendered to the wife and (b) the taxable costs expended by the wife; and (3) enter an order awarding reasonable attorney’s fees and costs for the wife.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part and remanded for further proceedings.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (28 total)

  • Seilkop v. Seilkop, 575 So. 2d 269 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)
    …gain an adequate support structure to aid in raising her child. Furthermore, the trial court may have considered the lump sum award as a means of ensuring “equity and justice between the parties.” Canakaris, 382 So. 2d at 1201; cf Iribar v. Iribar, 510 So. 2d 1023 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987) (award was “bridge-the-gap” measure to ease transition from married to single status). Those circumstances would provide ample grounds for the award. For these reasons, I would affirm the lump sum alimony award.…
  • Shea v. Shea, 572 So. 2d 558 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)
    …hough a spouse is already employed, or employable,2 an [*560] award of rehabilitative alimony may also be justified as a “bridge-the-gap” measure, to aid the recipient in making the transition from a married to a single state. See, Iribar v. Iribar, 510 So. 2d 1023 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). We find moot the husband’s point regarding the trial court’s award of possession of the marital home to the wife, pen-dente lite, and find no abuse of discretion in the court’s order that the parties should bear their own costs…
  • Green v. Green, 672 So. 2d 49 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)
    …tative alimony, which the court termed “bridge-the-gap.” This term refers to awards of rehabilitative alimony, not to retrain or rehabilitate a divorcing spouse, but to ease the transition between married life and being single. See Iribar v. Iribar, 510 So. 2d 1023 (Fla. Bd DCA 1987); Murray v. Murray, 374 So. 2d 622 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979). In Iribar, the court rejected the wife’s contention that the rehabilitative alimony award [*52] should have been for five years, finding that the trial court’s eighteen month…
    1 / 2

Previewing 3 of 28 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited (13 total)

View all 13 cited authorities →

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw