BETH ROOT
v.
LYLE FEINSTEIN
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.
Beth Root appeals the trial court's denial of her motion for temporary attorney's fees and costs as a sanction for her misconduct in accessing her former husband Lyle Feinstein's private emails. The former husband concedes the trial court erred by failing to make express findings regarding reasonable fees and costs attributable to the misconduct. The court reverses and remands for the trial court to apportion and make express findings on the reasonable amount of fees and costs that should be awarded or denied.
The trial court erred in denying the motion for temporary attorney's fees and costs without making express findings as to the reasonable amount of fees and costs. The court reverses the denial and remands for the trial court to apportion and make express findings as to the reasonable amount of fees and costs that should be awarded or denied for the modification proceeding pursuant to Rosen v. Rosen.
[1] When awarding or denying attorney's fees as a sanction for party misconduct, a trial court must make express findings apportioning and quantifying the reasonable amount o…
Previewing 1 of 1 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“On remand the trial court may apportion a reasonable amount of [wife's] attorney's fees based on a finding that [husband's] 'litigious behavior' caused some additional work, for which [wife's] attorneys have not already been compensated”
Citation to Pietras v. Pietras, 842 So. 2d 956, 963 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003), explaining the proper standard for apportionment on remand.
Beth Root accessed the private emails of her former husband, Lyle Feinstein, constituting misconduct. Root filed a motion for temporary attorney's fee…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Prevailing Party Provision cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM. The former wife, Beth Root, appeals the denial of her motion for temporary attorney’s fees and costs as a sanction for her misconduct in accessing the private emails of her former husband, Lyle Feinstein. Former husband concedes that the trial court erred in failing to make express findings setting forth the amount of reasonable fees and costs resulting from her misconduct that the trial court found not to be awardable for her modification proceeding. Accordingly, the denial of the motion for temporary attorney’s fees and costs as it stands is reversed and remanded for the trial court to apportion and make express findings as to the reasonable amount of fees and costs pursuant to Rosen v. Rosen, 696 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1997), that should be awarded or denied for her modification proceeding.1 See Pietras v. Pietras, 1 The parties entered into a prevailing party provision in their marital settlement agreement governing enforcement matters. Therefore, the remand herein is limited to the denial of temporary attorney’s fees and costs for the modification proceeding.
842 So. 2d 956, 963 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (“On remand the trial court may apportion a reasonable amount of [wife’s] attorney’s fees based on a finding that [husband’s] ‘litigious behavior’ caused some additional work, for which [wife’s] attorneys have not already been compensated”); see also Elliott v. Elliott, 867 So. 2d 1198, 1202 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004) (remanding for additional findings due to “the failure of the trial court to directly quantify the portion of the wife’s attorney’s fees incurred as a result of the husband’s purported misconduct.”). Reversed and Remanded. GROSS, ARTAU, JJ., and SCHOSBERG FEUER, SAMANTHA, Associate Judge, concur. * * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Rosen v. Rosen, 696 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 1997)
- Elliott v. Elliott, 867 So. 2d 1198 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004)
- Pietras v. Pietras, 842 So. 2d 956 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)