THOMAS E. RICHESON, APPELLANT,
v.
SOPHIE C.M. RICHESON, APPELLEE

Fla. 5th DCA | 2015-07-02
No. 5D14-2122
COHEN and BERGER, JJ., concur.
170 So. 3d 842 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2015) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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Synopsis

In a marital dissolution case, the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's equitable distribution of marital property but reversed its order directing the sale and partition of jointly-held investment property, finding the court lacked authority to order partition absent a specific pleading or party agreement.


Holding

The court reversed the partition and sale order, holding that absent a party's agreement or a specific pleading requesting partition, the trial court lacks authority to partition jointly-held property. The court affirmed the denial of credit for the claimed maintenance payments, finding the husband failed to provide supplemental documentation identifying the source of funds and whether payments derived from rental income.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court cannot partition jointly-held property in the absence of a specific pleading requesting partition or the parties' agreement to partition.

[2] A party seeking credit for payments made to maintain marital property during the pendency of a dissolution case must provide sufficient evidence of the source and nature…

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Key Quotes

“the court has no authority to partition jointly-held property in the absence of the parties' agreement or a specific pleading requesting partition”

Establishes the legal standard that courts cannot order partition without party agreement or specific pleading

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Facts & Procedural History

Husband and wife owned investment real property jointly. In the equitable distribution scheme, the trial court awarded each party a partial interest i…

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Opinion of the Court
PALMER,j.

PALMER,j.

Thomas Richeson (husband) appeals the final order entered by the trial court dis*843solving his marriage to Sophie Richeson (wife). We affirm in all respects except as to the trial court’s order of partition of certain marital real estate.

The husband raises four issues on appeal, only two of which merit discussion. First, in equitably distributing the marital property, the trial court awarded each of the parties a partial interest in real property, owned by the parties as investment property. The husband filed a motion for rehearing, challenging the fact that the final judgment did not award the investment property to either party. He further asserted that it was “impractical to maintain the parties as co-owners and to require them to jointly manage the property.” The husband requested the court to award the property outright to him as part of the court’s equitable distribution scheme. In response, the wife agreed that it would be impossible for the parties to continue to jointly own the investment property and sought either to have the property distributed solely to her or to sell the property and have the proceeds thereof divided between the parties. Importantly, neither party filed a pleading seeking partition of the property, and the husband did riot agree to the wife’s alternative request that the property be sold. The trial court granted rehearing and entered an order directing the sale of the property and division of the proceeds therefrom in accordance with the equitable distribution scheme set forth in the original dissolution judgment.

The husband challenges this ruling, contending that the trial court erred in ordering the sale of the real property in the absence of any pleading for partition of the property. We agree. See Martinez v. Martinez, 573 So.2d 37 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990) (holding that the court has no authority to partition jointly-held property in the absence of the parties’ agreement or a specific pleading requesting partition). Accordingly, we reverse the portion of the trial court’s rehearing order directing partition and order that the equitable distribution scheme set forth in the original final judgment be re-instated.

The husband also contends that the trial court erred when it failed to award him credit for $154,090.00 he allegedly paid during the pendency of the case to maintain joint investment properties. We find no error.

The husband’s only evidence with regard to his claim for credit was a summary statement which listed numerous deposits made by the husband to an account maintained for management of the parties’ investment properties. However, no evidence was presented as to the source- of the funds deposited into that account, including whether any of the funds derived from rental income on those properties. The trial court recognized this deficiency at the end of trial and directed the husband to provide supplemental documentation:

[W]ith regard to the payments made by Mr. Richeson, you need to separate out. Not that you might not get credit, because payments made on behalf of the other person to support property or other matters can count as support. But the court is not ruling on that at this time.

Despite the trial court’s direction that the parties provide supplemental financial documentation, the record does not reflect that the husband ever provided any such documentation. Accordingly, we find no abuse of discretion by the trial court in not awarding the credit sought by the husband.1

*844AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; and REMANDED.

COHEN and BERGER, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Salazar v. Giraldo, 190 So. 3d 248 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016)
    …s issue, See Todaro v. Todaro, 704 So. 2d 138, 139-40. (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (finding issues were not tried -by implied consent where wife objected at hearing). Second, Former Husband contends that this court’s recent opinions in Richeson v. Richeson, 170 So. 3d 842 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015), and Hodges v. Hodges, 128 So. 3d 190 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013), in which we held that the trial courts erred in directing the sale of marital real property, absent a pleading seeking partition of the property, compels reversal. Neithe…

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