CAROLYN JACKMORE, APPELLANT,
v.
WILLIAM JACKMORE, AND THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM JACKMORE, DECEASED, C/O SCOTT JACKMORE, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 2011-10-06
No. 1D11-0659
PADOVANO, ROBERTS, and MARSTILLER, JJ., concur.
71 So. 3d 912 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2011) Positive Treatment
Cited by 3 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

Carolyn Jackmore appealed the denial of her motion to enforce a 1975 New York alimony and child support judgment against her deceased former husband's estate. The Florida appellate court reversed, finding the trial court erred by denying enforcement without an evidentiary hearing and by applying incorrect legal standards under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.


Holding

The court reversed and remanded, holding that: (1) Florida's unlimited statute of limitations applies to enforcement of alimony and child support arrearages under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act; (2) while laches may limit an equitable enforcement action, it is an affirmative defense requiring proof of both parties' conduct and cannot be established by mere passage of time; and (3) the trial court erred by conducting a non-evidentiary hearing and lacked an evidentiary basis to find laches.


Headnotes

[1] The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, not the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, governs proceedings for the enforcement of interstate support orders whe…

[2] Under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, the statute of limitations for arrearages is the longer of the limitations periods of the forum state or the issuing stat…

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Key Quotes

“In a proceeding for arrearages, the statute of limitation under the laws of this state or of the issuing state, whichever is longer, applies.”

Establishes that Florida's unlimited statute of limitations applies to enforcement of out-of-state alimony and child support judgments.

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Facts & Procedural History

In 1975, the New York Supreme Court entered a judgment ordering William Jackmore to pay $200 monthly alimony and child support to his former wife, Car…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Carolyn Jackmore appeals an order denying her motion to enforce a foreign judgment. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

In 1975, the New York Supreme Court entered a judgment dissolving the marriage of Carolyn and William Jackmore and ordering the former husband to pay $200 monthly alimony and child support. *913Thirty-five years later, in May 2010, Carolyn Jackmore filed a motion in the Duval County Circuit Court to register the New York judgment and to enforce it against the estate of William Jackmore, alleging that he had repeatedly refused to pay his obligations in spite of her “requests and pleadings.” After a non-evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the motion, finding that the former wife had abandoned or waived any claim against the former husband, that her claim was barred by New York’s statute of limitations, and that she failed to comply with the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act. This was error.

The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act replaced the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act in 1997. Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. Cascella v. Cascella, 751 So.2d 1273 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000). Within the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, section 88.6041, Florida Statutes, provides:

(1) The law of the issuing state governs the nature, extent, amount, and duration of current payments and other obligations of support and the payment of arrearages under the order.
(2) In a proceeding for arrearages, the statute of limitation under the laws of this state or of the issuing state, whichever is longer, applies.

(Emphasis added.) Florida does not have a limitations period for enforcement of alimony or child-support orders, and thus Florida’s unlimited period applies.

Notwithstanding the absence of a limitations period, the former wife’s action for enforcement is equitable in nature and thus may be limited by the doctrine of laches. See Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. Brown v. Steinle, 837 So.2d 1072 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003). Laches, however, is an affirmative defense that must be proven by facts about both the plaintiffs and the defendant’s conduct, and is not established merely by the passage of an inordinate period of time. Bethea v. Langford, 45 So.2d 496 (Fla.1949).

It is undisputed that the hearing below was not an evidentiary hearing. The court thus had no evidentiary basis from which to conclude that the estate of the former husband had proven laches. Moreover, the estate did not contend until oral argument that the former wife’s action was barred by the two-year statute of non-claim under section 733.710, Florida Statutes. We reverse and remand for the lower court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine any factual issues properly raised by the parties.

REVERSE and REMAND.

PADOVANO, ROBERTS, and MARSTILLER, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Lovejoy v. Delilah Dee Poole, 230 So. 3d 164 (Fla. 5th DCA 2017)
    …ble estoppel in denying Lovejoy’s motion for contempt, absent an evidentiary hearing, that was error. Laches may bar an equitable claim of enforcement, but it is an affirmative defense dependent upon the facts of each case. See Jackmore v. Jackmore, 71 So. 3d 912, 913 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011) (“Laches ... is an affirmative defense that must be proven by facts about both the plaintiffs and the defendant’s conduct, and is not established merely by the passage of an inordinate period of time.” (citing Bethea v. Lang…

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