JOHN ROBERT FREEBURG, APPELLANT,
v.
SARAH ROSE FREEBURG, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1992-04-08
No. 91-1946
ANSTEAD and LETTS, JJ., concur.
596 So. 2d 794 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1992) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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.

Synopsis

A father appealed a trial court order denying him visitation rights with his minor children. The court affirmed, finding that the father failed to refute evidence of inappropriate sexual conduct with children and his psychological unfitness, and that he received adequate notice and opportunity to be heard.


Holding

The court affirmed the denial of visitation rights, finding no error in the trial court's disposition. The father received adequate due process because he specifically requested the hearing and was given a full opportunity to be heard, distinguishing this case from situations where a parent received no notice of modification proceedings. The trial court properly considered statutory factors regarding moral and mental fitness in restricting visitation in the child's best interest.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may deny or restrict parental visitation when it is in the child's best interest, even if termination of visitation is not favored.

[2] A party who requests a hearing and is afforded an opportunity to be heard cannot claim a denial of due process for the loss of visitation rights.

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Key Quotes

“the paramount matter resolved against the father was his psychological fitness to be alone with a minor child”

Identifies the central issue that led to denial of visitation rights

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Facts & Procedural History

The father sought enforcement of visitation rights in a letter to the trial court, which scheduled a hearing before a general master. The mother prese…

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Opinion of the Court
FRANK, RICHARD H., Associate Judge.

FRANK, RICHARD H., Associate Judge.

The father of minor children has appealed from an order of the trial court denying him visitation rights contemplated in a final judgment of dissolution. We affirm.

The father has represented himself in this proceeding. He initiated the action leading to the order under review in a letter to the trial court asking that it conduct a hearing and enforce visitation rights accorded him by an agreement embodied within the final judgment.

The trial court referred the matter to a general master who held a hearing. Although there is no transcript of the hearing, it is evident from the general master’s report that the paramount matter resolved against the father was his psychological fitness to be alone with a minor child. The mother presented evidence, in the form of a letter from the father to her, that he had engaged in peculiar and immoral sexual activity with their daughter and with another child. The father refused before the general master to answer any questions about those events. The father admitted that he was psychologically disabled and was receiving supplemental social security income as a result of his disability. He wotzld not, however, provide the general master with evidence disclosing his mental and emotional state.

The general master concluded that the father’s request for visitation should be denied. The trial court ratified the master’s conclusions. Without a record to refute any of the master’s findings adopted by the trial court, the father’s challenge to them is groundless.

The apparent gravamen of the father’s complaint before us is that he was denied due process because no pleadings leading to the loss of his visitation rights had been filed. See Cenate v. Cenate, 528 So. 2d 961 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988); Sardinas v. Sardinas, 401 So. 2d 909 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981).

We reject that argument, however, on the ground that the father specifically requested a hearing, albeit in a letter which the trial court apparently treated as a motion to enforce the final judgment. This case is distinguishable from Lentz v. Lentz, 414 So. 2d 292 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982), in which the father contended that he had no notice that his former wife would seek modification of his summer visitation peri od. The second district agreed with the father that the visitation order was modified without due process. Here, however, the father specifically sought relief from the trial court, and he was afforded an adequate opportunity to be heard. He either failed or refused to refute the mother’s evidence contradicting the reestablishment of visitation rights.

The father opened the door for the general master to reevaluate the question of shared parental responsibility and visitation. The master, and ultimately the trial court, were required to consider the relevant statutory factors, including the parents’ moral and mental fitness. § 61.-13(3)(f)-(g), Fla.Stat. (1989).

We recognize that termination of visitation is not favored, but the court in its discretion may restrict or deny contact between parent and child when it is in the child’s best interest. Hunter v. Hunter, 540 So. 2d 235 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989).

Based upon the record, we cannot say that the trial court erred in its disposition of this matter. It is to be noted that the father is not forever foreclosed from seeking modification of the present order upon the filing of an appropriate motion with the trial court.

Affirmed.

ANSTEAD and LETTS, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Estefani v. Libia Penafiel, 624 So. 2d 343 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993)
    …e is substantial competent evidence to support the decision of the trial court terminating the visitation rights of the father, paternal grandparents, and paternal great-grandparents, see Shaw v. Shaw, 334 So. 2d 13 (Fla.1976); Freeburg v. Freeburg, 596 So. 2d 794 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992); Hunter v. Hunter, 540 So. 2d 235 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989); T'Felt v. T'Felt, 446 So. 2d 1110 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), and allowing the mother to remove the children from Dade County. See Fabre v. Levine, 618 So. 2d 317 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993).…

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