KATHERINE ANN HYATT
v.
MARK RICHARD HYATT
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A trial court with in personam jurisdiction over a party may order that party to dissolve a trust and quitclaim title to the marital home to enforce equitable distribution, even without jurisdiction over the trustee.
[1] A trial court has jurisdiction to order the dissolution of a trust and compel a party to quitclaim title to property to enforce a prior equitable distribution judgment, e…
[2] A court's in personam jurisdiction over a party provides the authority to determine the equitable rights of the parties.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The court's in personam jurisdiction alone provides the court with the authority to determine the equitable rights of the parties.”
Court citing Lallouz v. Lallouz for the principle that in personam jurisdiction suffices to order trust dissolution
A trust holding mortgages on the marital home was discovered after the final judgment of dissolution. The trust had both the former husband and wife a…
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DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FOURTH DISTRICT
KATHERINE ANN HYATT,
Appellant,
v.
JANE ELIZABETH ZIMMERMAN, in the interest of M.H., a minor child, and THE ESTATE OF MARK RICHARD HYATT,
Appellees.
Nos. 4D22-896 and 4D22-937
[July 19, 2023]
Appeals from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Frank Ledee, Judge; L.T. Case Nos. FMCE 20-001384 and FMCE18-977(33).
Gustavo E. Frances of The Law Office of Gustavo E. Frances, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
Christopher N. Link of Christopher N. Link, P.A., Plantation, for appellees.
PER CURIAM. We affirm the trial court’s order requiring the former wife to terminate the trust, of which she was the sole beneficiary, and requiring her to satisfy mortgages the trust held on the marital home.1 The court had ordered the
2
termination of the trust to allow for the sale of the marital home, and in order to effectuate the equitable distribution set forth in the final judgment of dissolution, which included applying the former wife’s share of the proceeds to satisfy her court ordered financial responsibilities, with any remainder of her share distributed to her.
We find the trial court had jurisdiction to order the former wife to dissolve the trust and compel her to quitclaim title of the marital home to the former husband’s estate in order to enforce the sale of the marital home, even though the trial court did not have jurisdiction over the trustee. See Lallouz v. Lallouz, 695 So. 2d 466, 468 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997) (“The court’s in personam jurisdiction alone provides the court with the authority to determine the equitable rights of the parties.”); see also Royal v. Parado, 462 So. 2d 849, 854 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985) (“[C]ourts of equity having jurisdiction of the person of a party have exercised the power to compel him to perform a contract, execute a trust, or undo the effects of a fraud . . . .”) (citation omitted). We find no merit in any of appellant’s other raised issues.
Affirmed. WARNER, DAMOORGIAN and KUNTZ, JJ., concur.
* * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
through trust on their own property, even though the former wife now recognizes their existence.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Royal v. Parado, 462 So. 2d 849 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985)
- Lallouz v. Lallouz, 695 So. 2d 466 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997)