SUSAN WHITE DOWLING, WIFE, APPELLANT,
v.
ROBERT JASON DOWLING, HUSBAND, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 2017-11-06
No. CASE NO. 1D16-2264
WOLF, OSTÉRHAUS, and KELSEY, JJ., CONCUR.
235 So. 3d 970 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (2017)

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Synopsis

In a dissolution of marriage appeal, the Florida First District Court of Appeal agreed that the trial court's alimony award must be recalculated because it failed to account for how the reallocation of marital debt affected the parties' actual monthly expenses. The court reversed the alimony award while affirming the remainder of the final judgment.


Holding

The alimony award must be reversed and recalculated because it does not adequately provide for the former spouse's needs and necessities of life as established during the marriage when the court's reallocation of debt substantially increased her actual monthly expenses.


Headnotes

[1] An alimony award must be recalculated when the trial court's equitable distribution of marital debt substantially alters the parties' monthly expenses, rendering prior in…

[2] Alimony awards are insufficient if they do not provide for the needs and necessities of life for a former spouse as established during the marriage.

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Key Quotes

“The primary factors to be considered in deciding to award alimony are the needs of one spouse and the ability of the other spouse to pay.”

Establishes the controlling legal standard for alimony awards in Florida

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Facts & Procedural History

The trial court conducted a bench trial on equitable distribution and alimony issues. It found Ms. Dowling's net monthly income to be $5,418.81 with e…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

*971PER CURIAM.

Susan "White Dowling, the former wife, appeals from a final judgment of dissolution of marriage. We agree with her argument that the alimony award must be recalculated, but otherwise affirm without comment.

On June 17, 2014, Ms. Dowling filed a petition for dissolution of marriage from her husband Jason Dowling. After conducting discovery, the parties went to a bench trial on issues related to the equitable distribution of assets and debt and to the determination of entitlement to alimony. After hearing the evidence, the' trial court found Ms. Dowling’s net monthly income to be $5,418.81 and her monthly expenses to be $6,199.28. The court found Mr. Dowling’s net monthly income to be $11,729.31 and his monthly expenses to be $10,037.06. The court’s income and expense findings were based on the parties’ financial affidavits which indicated that Jason Dowling paid the full monthly amount of $2,053.98 on a line of credit owed by the parties. Based on these numbers, the court found Jason Dowling had an ability to pay alimony, and ordered him to pay durational alimony to his former wife of $1,200 per month for five years.

In general, “[t]he primary factors to be considered in deciding to award alimony are the needs of one spouse and the ability of the other spouse to pay.” Motie v. Motie, 132 So.3d 1210, 1213 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (citing Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197, 1201 (Fla. 1980)). An alimony award is insufficient if it “does not ‘provide for the needs and necessities of life for a former spouse as they were established during the marriage of the parties.’” Rhoads v. Rhoads, 213 So.3d 968, 970 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015) (quoting Mallard v. Mallard, 771 So.2d 1138, 1140 (Fla. 2000)).

In this case, the trial court’s alimony calculation did not take into account the change it ordered with respect to the parties’ payment of the $2,053.98/month line of credit debt. The trial court made each party responsible to pay for, one-half of .that debt, whereas the financial affidavits used to compute alimony assumed that Mr. Dowling was paying it entirely himself. Making Ms. Dowling responsible for one-half. of this .debt substantially increased her monthly expenses, and comparatively lowered Mr. Dowling’s monthly expenses, so that their, expenses were not accurately reflected in the court’s findings. Indeed, adding a line-of-credit payment of over $1,000 per month to Ms, Dowling’s expenses consumes almost all of the $1,200 alimony award.and doesn’t appear to “provide for the needs and necessities of life for a former spouse as they were established during the marriage of the parties.” Rhoads, 213 So.3d at 970 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

Accordingly, we reverse the alimony award for reconsideration in light of the court’s distribution of the marital debt. The judgment is otherwise affirmed.

WOLF, OSTÉRHAUS, and KELSEY, JJ., CONCUR.


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