BRUCE E. HEDENDAL, APPELLANT,
v.
ELLEN C. HEDENDAL, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1997-04-09
No. 95-3792
DELL and PARIENTE, JJ., concur.
695 So. 2d 391 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1997) Caution
Cited by 26 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 abused its discretion by requiring the husband to maintain life insurance for the wife's alimony without demonstrated need and erred in the distribution of marital assets by failing to deduct certain expenditures and double-counting an asset.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may order life insurance to protect child support and alimony, but such an award is justified only if there is a demonstrated need to protect the alimony re…

[2] A trial court abuses its discretion by requiring a party to maintain life insurance for the benefit of an alimony recipient without a demonstrated need.

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

In a divorce proceeding, the trial court ordered the husband to maintain life insurance for the wife's alimony and divided a joint investment account …

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
MAY, MELANIE G., Associate Judge.

MAY, MELANIE G., Associate Judge.

A buffet of issues has been served for this appeal. ’ It once again illustrates the difficult task given to trial judges to divide and conquer the multiple financial issues raised in the divorce of a wealthy couple with children. We compliment the trial judge for sorting through the menu of issues presented. The appellant/husband has raised nineteen issues in this appeal, only two of which demand attention.

This divorce involved the distribution of numerous assets and consideration of competing interests and points of view. As an appetizer, we address the trial court’s requirement that the husband maintain life insurance sufficient to cover both alimony and child support. The trial court ordered the following:

K. The Husband shall maintain a policy of life insurance for the benefit and security of the children, with a new death benefit of one million dollars ($1,000,000.00). This is for an additional contribution to the support and maintenance of the children. It shall be continuously maintained until such time as the Husband is no longer legally obligated to contribute to the support of the children, pursuant to Paragraph 7 of the decretal portion of this Order. L. The Husband shall continue to maintain the present policy of life insurance with a minimum death benefit of One Million Five Hundred thousand Dollars ($1,500,000.00) for the benefit of the Wife, to secure her alimony.

We find the order as it concerns insurance for the wife’s alimony to be an abuse of discretion and reverse the judgment with directions to delete the requirement of maintaining life insurance for the benefit of insuring the wife’s alimony. A trial court may order life insurance to protect child support and alimony. Sobelman v. Sobelman, 541 So. 2d 1153 (Fla.1989). Such an award, however, is not automatic. It “is justified only if there is a demonstrated need to protect the alimony recipient.” Privett v. Privett, 535 So. 2d 663, 665 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988). There is no such finding in either the record or the trial court’s order in this case. Furthermore, the amount of insurance required to be maintained for purpose of child support should be reduced to the amount of child support due, which appears to be substantially less than the $1,000,000.00 required by paragraph K of the Judgment.

The main course involves the distribution of assets and the accountability of funds in a jointly held Charles Schwab account. The trial court assessed the fund at $63,580 and divided this amount equally between the husband and the wife. However, by the date of the final judgment, $24,000 had been removed by the husband to set up an edu cational account to benefit the elder son Lief and another $25,000 had been spent by the husband to redecorate his office. Yet, these amounts were not deducted from the $63,580 before dividing the fund equally.

The equitable distribution schedule further reflects that the trial court hated the monies put into Liefs educational fund as a $25,000 asset of the husband. In essence, the asset was assessed against the husband twice, which constitutes error. Watson v. Watson, 683 So. 2d 534 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). Furthermore, the husband should not be assessed the $24,000 in the educational fund as the monies are in an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the son and cannot be reached by the husband. See generally Akers v. Akers, 582 So. 2d 1212 (Fla. 1st DCA), rev. denied, 592 So. 2d 679 (Fla.1991); and Knecht v. Knecht, 629 So. 2d 883 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1993), rev. denied, 644 So. 2d 1041 (Fla.1994). The trial court also indicated the amount as $25,-000 instead of $24,000, which should be corrected. Burk v. Burk, 666 So. 2d 953 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996).

The husband’s expenditure of $25,000 from this fund for redecorating his office should have been deducted from the fund before assessing each party with half of $63,-580. As the valuation of the husband’s business should have already included this $25,-000, it should not have been assessed twice by not deducting it before the fund was divided in half. See generally Thibault v. Thibault, 668 So. 2d 237 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). To this extent, the distribution of the Schwab Account must be recalculated to delete both the $24,000 set aside in the educational fund and the $25,000 spent for redecorating prior to assessing each spouse with half of the remaining assets in the Fund. These changes will require the trial court to review the distribution of assets to achieve the proper balance.

Reversed and remanded for recalculation of the distribution of assets and maintenance of life insurance consistent with this opinion.

DELL and PARIENTE, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (14 total)

  • Stavros Konsoulas v. Konsoulas, 904 So. 2d 440 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005)
    …hat will secure the awards of child support and alimony”) in the absence of a demonstrated need or any evidence regarding the availability and cost of such insurance. See Smith v. Smith, 811 So. 2d 840, 840 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002); Hedendal v. Hedendal, 695 So. 2d 391, 392 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). The award of fees and costs is also reversed due to our resolution of the other issues on appeal. We remand for modification of the final judgment accordingly and for such further proceedings as may be necessary to implem…
  • Moorehead v. Moorehead, 745 So. 2d 549 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
    …535 So. 2d 663, 665 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988), we held that requiring a spouse to maintain a life insurance policy to secure alimony “is justified only if there is a demonstrated need to protect the alimony recipient.” Similarly, in Hedendal v. Hedendal, 695 So. 2d 391, 392 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), we stated that a trial judge should make a finding’ of need prior to requiring the maintenance of a life insurance policy. In the present case, the trial court made no findings demonstrating the need to secure the wife’s a…
  • Crockett v. Crockett, 708 So. 2d 329 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998)
    …rtheless used the $35,261 value for the Schwab account and the $6,071 value for the SouthTrust Bank account in the calculation of assets. The court thus erred by including the same funds twice in the equitable distribution. See Hedendal v. Hedendal, 695 So. 2d 391 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)(amount removed by former husband from account jointly held with former wife, and placed in educational account to [*332] benefit parties’ child, was improperly assessed against husband twice, when account was divided equally betw…

Previewing 3 of 14 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw