BONITA LEWIS, APPELLANT,
v.
CHARLES ELLIS LEWIS, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1997-09-25
No. 96-196
JOANOS, WOLF and VAN NORTWICK, JJ., concur.
699 So. 2d 808 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1997)

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Synopsis

In a dissolution of marriage case, Bonita Lewis appealed an order that released her ex-husband Charles Ellis Lewis from contempt incarceration for failure to pay attorney's fees and established a payment schedule of $50 monthly. The court affirmed the release from incarceration but reversed the payment schedule as inadequate because it required payments less than the accruing monthly interest.


Holding

The court affirmed the release from incarceration, finding trial courts possess inherent authority to end civil contempt sanctions. However, the court reversed the payment schedule, holding that it was error to require payments less than the monthly interest accruing on the total obligation.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court possesses the inherent authority to terminate a civil contempt incarceration sanction it previously imposed.

[2] A trial court errs by establishing a payment schedule for a contempt award that requires monthly payments less than the accruing monthly interest on the total obligation.

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Key Quotes

“As a necessary corollary to the authority to impose incarceration as a sanction for civil contempt, a trial court possesses the inherent authority to end that sanction.”

Establishes that trial courts have inherent authority to release someone from civil contempt incarceration, justifying affirmance of the release.

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Facts & Procedural History

By December 1994 order, Charles Ellis Lewis was ordered to pay Bonita Lewis $7,516.90 in attorney's fees and costs from their dissolution proceeding, …

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Bonita Lewis challenges an order entered sua sponte by the trial court which (i) released Charles Ellis Lewis, appellee, from his incarceration under a contempt order which had been based on appellee’s failure to pay appellant’s attorney’s fees and costs incurred in the parties’ dissolution action; and (ii) established a schedule pursuant to which appellee would pay, in part, the appellant’s attorney’s fees. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

By order dated December 17, 1994, appel-lee was ordered to pay the appellant’s attorney’s fees and costs of $7,516.90 incurred in the parties’ dissolution proceeding, plus interest on the total sum at the statutory rate of 12% per annum. On September 5, 1995, the appellant filed a motion for an order of contempt alleging that the appellee had failed to pay her attorney’s fees as ordered. After a hearing, the lower court found that the appellee had the ability to pay the award of attorney’s fees and costs, but willfully had not done so. Accordingly, on September 15, 1995, the appellee was found in contempt and the sheriff was directed to incarcerate appel-lee until he paid the amount owed, plus accrued interest.

Approximately three months later, on December 8, 1995, the lower court, on its own motion, adopted a payment schedule which had been submitted by the appellee on December 27,1994, almost one year earlier. In this order, appellee was instructed to pay $50 a month for a year “after which a reconsideration will be made.” By the same order, appellee was released from incarceration.

Appellant challenges the order, arguing that the lower court has abused its discretion by sua sponte discharging its contempt order, thereby releasing appellee without full satisfaction of the outstanding debt, and by directing appellee to pay a monthly amount which is less than the accruing monthly interest on the total obligation for fees and costs.

Appellant has offered no substantive argument as to how the lower court erred in releasing the appellee from jail. As a necessary corollary to the authority to impose incarceration as a sanction for civil contempt, a trial court possesses the inherent authority to end that sanction. See Bashir v. Bache, 557 So. 2d 628 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990); Morgan v. Foretich, 564 A. 2d 1 (D.C.App.1989). Thus, we find no error in the release of appellee in the instant ease.

As for the payment schedule, we do agree with appellant that the trial court erred in adopting a payment schedule which requires appellee to pay less than the interest accruing monthly on the total obligation established in the final judgment. See Urbieta v. Urbieta, 469 So. 2d 930 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), and Bleakley v. Bleakley, 680 So. 2d 1048 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996).

Accordingly, we affirm that part of the order releasing appellee from his incarceration, we reverse that part of the order obliging appellee to pay only $50 per month, and we remand the cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part and REMANDED.

JOANOS, WOLF and VAN NORTWICK, JJ., concur.


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