JERRY DOUGLAS SULLIVAN, APPELLANT,
v.
DIANA LEE SULLIVAN, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1992-02-12
No. 90-0173
POLEN, J., concurs., STONE, J., concurs specially with opinion.
593 So. 2d 1153 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1992) Caution
Cited by 8 cases

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Synopsis

Jerry Sullivan appealed a contempt adjudication for failure to pay $250 weekly alimony. The Fourth District affirmed the contempt finding but reversed the purge provision requiring full payment of arrearages, holding that the trial court improperly attributed his roommate's income to him and that the purge amount must be reduced to installments.


Holding

The contempt adjudication was affirmed because the evidence supported a finding that Sullivan was willfully not complying with the alimony obligation to the best of his ability. However, the trial court erred in attributing the roommate's income to Sullivan and in imposing a purge provision requiring full payment of arrearages, which was impossibly high and should be reduced to installments payable in addition to current obligations.


Headnotes

[1] A party's voluntary reduction in income does not excuse compliance with a court-ordered alimony obligation.

[2] A court may consider the income of a person with whom a party cohabitates when determining the party's ability to pay alimony, provided there is a legal obligation to sup…

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Key Quotes

“Even though appellant may be the beneficiary of her largess, since there is no legal obligation, we believe attribution to him is not allowable in this context.”

Establishes that a former spouse's roommate's income cannot be attributed to him for purposes of determining ability to pay support, despite shared finances and benefits.

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Facts & Procedural History

At the time of divorce, Sullivan agreed to pay his ex-wife $250 per week in alimony while earning approximately $1000 per week as a plasterer. Nearly …

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Opinion of the Court
DOWNEY, Judge.

DOWNEY, Judge.

The appellant, Jerry Sullivan, appeals from an order adjudging him in contempt for failure to pay the alimony contained in the property settlement agreement which was incorporated into the final judgment of dissolution of marriage.

At the time of dissolution, appellant agreed to pay his wife $250 per week alimony. According to the record, he was then making approximately $1000 per week as a plasterer. He contends that he now takes home approximately $400 to $500 per week. The record indicates that his income has gradually diminished during the nearly four years since the termination of the marriage. The evidence adduced in support of the wife’s motion for contempt and the husband’s motion for modification reflects that the husband lives with a woman and her child in an apartment for which he pays the rent of $430 per month. He also pays $220 per month for food and he lists numerous other expenses. His “roommate” testified that she makes approximately $600 per week, which she commingles with the husband’s income in a joint checking account. She also testified that she pays some of the expenses and has lent the husband substantial sums to meet his alimony obligations, particularly when he had been cited for contempt and jailed on a previous occasion.

Counsel for appellee, at a hearing for contempt in December, 1989, described the unilateral diminution of the weekly alimony payment since the dissolution judgment in this fashion:

We got payments of the correct amount of $250 a week for five weeks and then it dropped to a hundred and fifty for about eight or nine weeks and then to a hundred for four weeks and then to fifty....

In her petition for contempt, filed November 1, 1989, appellee stated that the husband was in arrears again, this time in the amount of $2,400. She reiterated the terms of the separation and property settlement agreement (which was incorporated into the judgment of dissolution), and recited appellant’s previous defaults and adjudication of contempt, which he ultimately had purged. She alleged that he was “still demonstrating, by his failure to pay the support award to the petitioner, his willful contempt of the Court’s previous Orders in this matter_” In his response, appellant admitted all of the foregoing allegations, but denied his ability to meet the mandate of the court.

The trial court found appellant to be in arrears in the amount of $3,250, which he willfully refused to pay; thus, he was in willful contempt. The court also found appellant was presently able to pay the total amount of the arrearage. Sentence of 179 days in the county jail in the event appellant failed to pay the arrearage by a date certain was imposed by the court. If incarcerated, appellant was able to purge by paying the full amount of the arrearage.

Appellant now contends that the evidence failed to justify an order of contempt; that the trial court’s consideration of appellant’s girl friend’s income as contributing to his ability to pay was erroneous, as was the finding of his present ability to pay the amount of the purge.

Upon consideration of the record, we believe that there is adequate support for the adjudication of contempt. The court was justified in finding that appellant simply was not complying with the court’s award to the best of his ability.

We have some difficulty with the trial court’s treatment of the roommate’s income as though it were appellant’s. Even though appellant may be the beneficiary of her largess, since there is no legal obligation, we believe attribution to him is not allowable in this context. See Schneider v. Schneider, 348 So. 2d 612 (Pla. 4th DCA 1977); Lau v. Lau, 407 So. 2d 927 (Fla.3d DCA 1981); Harman v. Harman, 523 So. 2d 187 (Fla.2d DCA 1988). Apropos of that problem, we find that the provision authorizing appellant to purge the contempt adjudication, by paying the full amount of the arrearage, to be tantamount to no purge provision because he can’t pay it. It should be reduced to installments payable in addition to his current obligation.

Accordingly, we affirm the order appealed from in all respects except as to the purge provision and remand the cause to the trial court with directions to reconsider that provision in the light of the evidence and such further evidentiary offerings as the court and counsel may deem appropriate.

POLEN, J., concurs.

STONE, J., concurs specially with opinion.

Concurrence
STONE, Judge,

STONE, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur specially only to note that even though the roommate’s income may not be treated as appellant’s, her contribution remains relevant on the issue of his true expenses.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Long v. Long, 622 So. 2d 622 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)
    …, there was no evidence to show that the change was permanent. The voluntary contribution of a live-in companion cannot be equated with the legal obligation of a former spouse and, thus, one cannot be substituted for the other. Sullivan v. Sullivan, 593 So. 2d 1153, 1154 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). In the absence of a legally binding agreement between the wife and the live-in companion, there is no evidence to conclude that this economic change is necessarily permanent. See Townsend v. Townsend, 585 So. 2d 468, 470 (…
  • Arouza v. Goldin C. Arouza, 670 So. 2d 69 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)
    …is well established that a court may not impute an ability to pay based upon the income of a former spouse’s cohabitant. See Long v. Long, 622 So. 2d 622 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993); McCall v. McCall, 616 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993); Sullivan v. Sullivan, 593 So. 2d 1153 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). However, attorney’s fees may be assessed in domestic cases against a party who initiates a baseless cause of action which results in meritless litigation and the unnecessary expenditure of fees, Nash v. Nash, 624 So. 2d 370 (Fla…
  • McCALL v. McCALL, 616 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993)
    …5.50. Initially, we note that in determining a former spouse’s ability to pay domestic support, it is improper for a trial court to treat the former spouse’s roommate’s [*608] income as though it were the former spouse’s. See Sullivan v. Sullivan, 593 So. 2d 1153, 1154 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). A trial court may, however, consider a roommate’s contribution to living expenses as evidence of a former spouse’s true expenses. 593 So. 2d at 1155 (Stone, J., concurring specially). In the instant case, there was no evid…

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