GARY STUART DENNIS ISRAEL, PETITIONER,
v.
KEN JENNE, BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFF, AND BETH ISRAEL, RESPONDENTS

Fla. 4th DCA | 2002-04-25
No. 4D02-1401
POLEN, C.J., GUNTHER and WARNER, JJ., concur.
814 So. 2d 1215 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2002) 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

The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal granted habeas corpus relief to a civil contempt detainee, finding that the trial court's contempt order lacked sufficient factual findings regarding the petitioner's actual ability to pay purported contempt sanctions, particularly where the petitioner's business assets were frozen under a receivership order.


Holding

The court held that the contempt order failed to provide adequate factual support for a finding of ability to pay. Civil incarceration for contempt is permissible only when the contemnor demonstrably has the ability to comply with the order, and neither gross net sales nor frozen business account balances constitute available funds when a receivership enjoins the contemnor's access to those assets.


Headnotes

[1] Incarceration for civil contempt requires a finding that the contemnor has the ability to comply with the court's order.

[2] A civil contempt order must contain a recital of facts demonstrating the contemnor's ability to comply with the underlying order.

Previewing 2 of 4 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

Key Quotes

“Incarceration for civil contempt is available only when the contemnor has the ability to comply with the court's order.”

Establishes the fundamental legal standard that must be satisfied before civil contempt incarceration is permissible.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Petitioner Israel was incarcerated for civil contempt related to family law obligations. A receiver was appointed over his retail business with exclus…

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.

This court granted Petitioner’s pri-or petition for habeas corpus and directed his release from incarceration on a contempt order that failed to contain the recital of facts as required by Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.615(d)(1) and 12.615(e). See Israel v. Jenne, 27 Fla. L. Weekly D586, - So. 2d -, 2002 WL 481007, (Fla. 4th DCA Mar.11, 2002). This court’s prior order was without prejudice to reincarcerate Petitioner upon compliance with the applicable provisions of the rule. Petitioner has now been reincarcer-ated pursuant to a new order and again petitions for release, contending that the new order also fails to contain the required factual support for its findings of ability to pay. We agree and grant relief.

Incarceration for civil contempt is available only when the contemnor has the ability to comply with the court’s order. See Bowen v. Bowen, 471 So. 2d 1274, 1277 (Fla.1985). The only actual facts contained in the trial court’s order that relate to Petitioner’s ability to pay were based on the testimony of the former wife’s accountant — approximately one month after the former wife was appointed receiver of Petitioner’s business and had exclusive possession of and the opportunity to review the business records — that he could have made the payments from the cash flow of the business. The order makes reference to a business account with a balance of .$43,669.91, and to “net sales” from the business averaging $667,000 per year.1 The transcript of the hearing, which the former wife provided to this court in connection with the prior petition, indicates that the former wife made no attempt to demonstrate whether Petitioner’s business actually generated any net income after the net sales were used to pay for the goods sold and other expenses of the business. (On the contrary, her expert accountant testified that Petitioner could have used the net sales to pay the former wife instead of paying his business creditors for the inventory he sold in his retail business.)

Moreover, the order appointing the former wife as receiver of Petitioner’s business, which the former wife supplied in the prior proceeding and which Petitioner attaches to his reply in this one, enjoined Petitioner and his representatives from transferring, encumbering, paying out, or allowing anyone to remove funds or assets of any kind from the business, except as the receiver might authorize to enable the business to function in the ordinary course and to pay necessary business expenses. Under the circumstances, neither the current balance of the business account nor the “net sales” of the business is available to Petitioner to purge himself of the contempt.

Accordingly, we grant the petition and direct Petitioner’s immediate release from incarceration.

POLEN, C.J., GUNTHER and WARNER, JJ., concur. . "Net sales” is defined as "[g]ross sales minus returns, allowances, rebates, and discounts.” Black’s Law Dictionary 939 (5th ed.1979).


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Israel v. Israel, 827 So. 2d 387 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)
    …writ of habeas corpus, ordering his release from incarceration pursuant to the same contempt order, based on this court’s determination that the order lacked factual support for the trial court’s findings on his ability to pay. See Israel v. Jenne, 814 So. 2d 1215 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). The former husband now asks this court to reverse the order adjudicating him in contempt, arguing that there was no competent evidence in the record to support the trial court’s finding that he had the ability to pay either th…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw