SHELDON ROSENTHAL, APPELLANT,
v.
JACQUELINE M. ROTH, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2002-03-13
No. 3D01-3122
Before COPE, FLETCHER, and SORONDO, JJ.
816 So. 2d 667 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2002) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 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

Sheldon Rosenthal appealed a domestic violence injunction entered against him by his sister, Jacqueline Roth, arising from a physical altercation at their mother's hospital. The court affirmed the injunction, holding that siblings related by blood fall within Florida's domestic violence statute regardless of whether they currently reside together.


Holding

The court held that the domestic violence injunction was properly entered because persons related by blood are expressly included as 'family or household members' under Florida Statute section 741.28(2), and the literal application of the statute is not absurd merely because the siblings have not cohabited for forty years.


Headnotes

[1] A domestic violence injunction may be entered against individuals related by blood, even if they have not resided together for many years.

[2] The plain language of a statute will be applied unless a literal interpretation leads to an absurd conclusion.

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Key Quotes

“'Family or household member' means spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who are presently residing together as if a family or who have resided together in the past as if a family, and persons who have a child in common regardless of whether they have been married or have resided together at any time.”

Establishes the statutory definition of family or household members under Florida law, expressly including persons related by blood

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Facts & Procedural History

Rosenthal and Roth, who are siblings, got into an argument while visiting their mother at a hospital that escalated into physical violence. Roth sough…

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Opinion of the Court
FLETCHER, Judge.

FLETCHER, Judge.

Sheldon Rosenthal appeals a domestic violence injunction entered against him and in favor of his sister, Jacqueline M. Roth. For the following reason, we affirm.

While visiting their mother at a hospital, the brother and sister got into an argument which escalated into physical violence because of which Roth sought, and was successful in obtaining against Rosenthal, a permanent injunction pursuant to Florida’s domestic violence statute, section 741.30, Florida Statutes (2001). Rosenthal contends that the trial court’s ruling is in error because he and his sister have not resided in the same household for more than forty years, thus any violence between them cannot be “domestic.” Roth argues to the contrary, relying on sections 741.28(1) & (2), Florida Statutes (2001), which define domestic violence and persons covered by the domestic violence statute:

“(1) ‘Domestic violence’ means any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another who is or was residing in the same single dwelling unit.

(2) ‘Family or household member’ means spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who are presently residing together as if a family or who have resided together in the past as if a family, and persons who have a child in common regardless of whether they have been married or have resided together at any time.”

As they are related by blood, Roth contends that the unambiguous terms of the statute govern and the domestic injunction against her brother is perfectly valid. Rosenthal correctly concedes that the statutory language is unambiguous and would ordinarily be given its plain meaning. Specialty Restaurants Corp. v. City of Miami, 501 So. 2d 101 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). Rosenthal adds, however, that there is an applicable exception to the rule; i.e., if a literal interpretation leads to an absurd conclusion,1 that interpretation will be avoided. Castillo v. Vlaminck de Castillo, 771 So. 2d 609 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000). And, argues Rosenthal, a domestic injunction in this case is absurd.

We do not agree that the result here equates to an absurdity. After forty years the siblings still harbor such animosity toward one another that it caused an emotional and physical explosion while Roth and Rosenthal were visiting their hospitalized mother — undeniably a domestic-related scene, and one that we suspect occurs more than occasionally.2 Accordingly, we apply the statute as written by the legislature.

Affirmed.

. Reductio ad absurdum, as Cicero would put it.

. Sibling discord is an ancient, recurring theme in literature and life, such as the exam-pie of Isaac's sons Jacob and Esau, who endured a strained relationship from their birth. Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-28:9; 32:1-21; 33:1-16.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Bond v. Bond, 917 So. 2d 268 (Fla. 5th DCA 2005)
    …302, 1303 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997) (nothing in Ms. Sharpe’s petition which claims that she and the appellant ever resided in the same household and under Florida law, statutory domestic violence between the pair cannot occur). See also Rosenthal v. Roth, 816 So. 2d 667, 668 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (brother’s violence against sister while visiting hospitalized mother was considered domestic violence and would allow sister to obtain domestic vio [*272] lence injunction against brother even though the two did not reside i…
  • Laurance Costanzo v. Costanzo, 941 So. 2d 1211 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006)
    …(2002), as he and Ms. Costanzo were not living together at the time the Initial Petition was filed and have not lived together for numerous years. We disagree. Not only has this argument been previously rejected by this court, see Rosenthal v. Roth, 816 So. 2d 667, 667-68 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)(holding that a sister was properly granted a permanent domestic violence injunction against her brother, even though they had not resided with each other for more than forty years, where an argument between the siblings es…

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