MICHAEL J. O'SHEA, APPELLANT,
v.
MILDRED F. O'SHEA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1969-03-26
No. 1447
OWEN, J., and DOWNEY, JAMES C., Associate Judge, concur.
221 So. 2d 223 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1969) Caution
Cited by 10 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

In this divorce appeal, the Florida District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court's decision that awarded all jointly held property to the wife, holding instead that the parties should be deemed tenants in common. The court found that the wife had voluntarily transferred her property into joint names pursuant to a valid antenuptial agreement and that no legal basis existed for rescinding the completed gifts.


Holding

The court held that the trial court erred in denying effect to the antenuptial agreement and in rescinding the wife's voluntary transfers of property into joint names. The parties should be deemed tenants in common as to the contested property, with the husband retaining his one-half interest in the apartment lease, checking account, and brokerage account (including the $75,621.93 proceeds from the sale of stock).


Key Quotes

“The property was validly conveyed to the husband in June 1966. Suit was filed in February 1967. The record during the intervening period contains no basis for a finding of such special equity.”

Establishes that the wife cannot rescind completed gifts and antenuptial agreements absent special circumstances not present here.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

A wealthy 66-year-old widow (Mildred) married a 36-year-old steamfitter/welder (Michael) in June 1966, after divorcing him just one month earlier (the…

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.


Opinion of the Court
WALDEN, Chief Judge.

*225WALDEN, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal by the husband from a portion of a final decree of divorce. It is aimed only at the provisions which awarded all jointly held property to the wife. The challenged decretal language was:

“It appearing to the Court that this 36 year old Defendant, MICHAEL J. O’SHEA, did deliberately design to acquire and take the property of this 66 year old Plaintiff, MILDRED F. O’SHEA, to his own use and benefit, and that said Defendant has contributed no moneys to the support of the parties nor brought any property into the marriage and, on the contrary, that all support of the Plaintiff and Defendant has been furnished from the separate property and income of the Plaintiff.
“And it further appearing to the Court that the following described personal property stands in the joint names of the Plaintiff and the Defendant and that said property was owned individually by the Plaintiff, prior to the marriage of the parties on June 9, 1966:”
(An apartment lease, a brokerage account and a check issued from the brokerage account were then described.)
ifc IjC ‡ sfc ‡
“ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the Plaintiff shall take the above described property as her separate property and that .all title and interest of the Defendant therein is divested out of him md is vested in the Plaintiff. * * * ”

We reverse and hold that the parties should instead be deemed tenants in common as to this property.

It cannot be gainsaid that this was indeed an unusual union. The differences in age, background and assets made it so. But these differences, without more, do not constitute grounds for a judicial return of these properties to the wife. This is true even though their arrangements may be somewhat repugnant to our mores and sense of chivalry.

The wife is 66 years of age while the husband is 36 years of age.

The wife prior to' marriage to this husband was a wealthy widow. The husband was an impecunious steamfitter and welder whose trade was capable of producing average weekly wages of $225.00.

After a close and intimate acquaintance of about one year the parties were married for the first time in February 1966. At the wife’s behest the parties were divorced in May 1966, for the first time. In June 1966, the parties were again married. The second divorce decree which is here on appeal was entered in April 1967, with the wife again denominated as plaintiff.

At the first separation and subsequent divorce the husband took a negligible sum of money and none of the wife’s assets and traveled to Michigan in order to obtain work in his trade. Some time and several telephone conversations later the husband returned to Florida and resumed cohabitation with the wife.

The parties agreed to remarry, but each exacted conditions from the other. The husband insisted as a condition of remarriage that the wife put her property in their joint names,1 a proposition with which she agreed because “that is the way it should be, because of a marriage being *226happy it has to be a fifty-fifty proposition.” In return, the husband agreed to remarry the wife and to give up his job in Michigan, working henceforth only out of Fort Lau-derdale.

Subsequent to their remarriage, the wife transferred her individual. stock brokerage account and the proprietary lease to her apartment into the joint names of herself and the husband. She also opened a joint checking account.into which she made substantial deposits. She admitted that these acts were done in furtherance of their agreement.2 With specific reference to their stock account, she acknowledged the voluntary nature of the transfers.3

Both parties have asserted the existence of an oral antenuptial agreement. In fact, this agreement was first injected into the cause in the wife’s complaint wherein she alleged, “[ijmmediately following the marriage and as a condition imposed by the Defendant for the marriage, the * * * property was placed * * * in the joint names of Plaintiff and Defendant.”

The marriage itself would have been sufficient consideration to support the .agreement.4 But in addition this agreement was supported by the husband’s counter-agreement to work only out of Fort Lau-derdale, as demanded by the wife.5

Although antenuptial agreements fall within the statute of frauds,6 partial performance is normally sufficient to remove the transaction from the operation of the statute. The testimony in this case is uncontradicted that the agreement was fully performed. Mrs. O’Shea voluntarily made her husband joint owner of her brokerage *227account, apartment lease and checking account. In return he remarried and sought work only in the Fort Lauderdale area, devoting his time in large part to successful dealings in their stock where approximately $13,600.00 in profits were realized in seven months.

Since the antenuptial agreement' was fully performed, the trial court erred in denying effect to the agreement.

But there is still another reason why the order appealed must be reversed insofar as it purports to restore all of the wife’s erstwhile property to her individual ownership. The testimony is uncontradicted that Mrs. O’Shea voluntarily conveyed to her husband joint ownership of her stock brokerage account,7 her bank account8 and her long term apartment lease.9

Even though a husband has not the benefit of a presumptive gift when he receives property from his wife,10 the husband here has carried his burden, largely through the wife’s own testimony, of showing that she intended to voluntarily transfer one-half interest in her assets to her husband.11 The wife nowhere has claimed the transfers to be loans. Nor has she testified that the transfers were other than voluntary.

Negatively, there is no evidence of fraud, coercion, or incompetency. It is clear from the candid testimony of the wife that she knowingly and willingly transferred this property into her husband’s name. This was done in the light of the history of the parties and with the transfers requiring several steps over an appreciable period of time, all of which negates any idea of temporary or rash impulse. She had opportunity and means to seek counsel had she wished to do so.

All and all, it is difficult to understand the legal theory upon which the wife bases her claim for recovery. Her complaint gives no hint except the recital in the prayer where she seeks lump sum alimony *228and special equity. Patently, she is not entitled to alimony.

Is there a basis for finding .a special equity in this property which would warrant the court in unmaking the earlier unqualified and completed gift and rescinding the performed antenuptial agreement? The answer is “no.” The property was validly conveyed to the husband in June 1966. Suit was filed in February 1967. The record' during the intervening period contains no basis for a finding of such special equity.12 She knew his employment situation and it was at her instance or requirement that he remained in Fort Lauderdale where employment possibilities for his trade were nil. He successfully traded in stocks and, except for her claim of cruelty, the parties acted out their expected roles. Apart from the stock profit accounted for by the husband’s efforts, none of the contested property was accumulated during the marriage course.

We summarize by holding that the transfers of property to the husband are completed gifts or conveyances per valid ante-nuptial agreement.

The decision of the trial court as to the matters appealed is reversed with instructions to decree the parties as tenants in common13 as to the apartment lease, checking account and brokerage account. Since the husband now holds a check for $75,621.-93, payable to both the husband and wife as proceeds from the sale of stock, this amount shall be considered part of the brokerage account on remand.

Reversed.

OWEN, J., and DOWNEY, JAMES C., Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Hegel v. Hegel, 248 So. 2d 212 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971)
    …ld support by the trial court. Thus, this cause must be affirmed in part and reversed in part for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. . § 689.15 Fla.Stat., F.S.A. . O’Shea v. O’Shea, Fla.App.1969, 221 So. 2d 223, 227. Olsen v. Olsen, Fla.App. 1967, 195 So. 2d 864. . Foster v. Thornton, 131 Fla. 2T7, 179 So. 882.…
  • Madge P. Ball v. Ball, 335 So. 2d 5 (Fla. 1976)
    …husband’s sole name and jointly held property) ; Tanner v. Tanner, 194 So. 2d 702 (Fla.App. 2d), cert. denied, 201 So. 2d 560 (FIa.1967) and Roberts v. Roberts, 101 So. 2d 884 (Fla. App. 2d 1958) (as to personal property). . Cf., O’Shea v. O’Shea, 221 So. 2d 223 (Fla. App. 4th), cert. denied, 225 So. 2d 919 (Fla. 1969) (gift up to a one-half interest in personal property). . Ordinarily a special equity will not arise where property held as tenants by the entire-ties is acquired with the funds generated by…
  • Asma Akileh v. Safwan Elchahal, 666 So. 2d 246 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996)
    …th DCA), review denied, 630 So. 2d 1101 (Fla.1993). The trial court erred in finding that the wife gave no consideration in this contract. Under Florida law, marriage is sufficient consideration to uphold an antenuptial agreement. O’Shea v. O’Shea, 221 So. 2d 223 (Fla. 4th DCA), cert. denied, 225 So. 2d 919 (Fla.1969). In addition, the parties agreed on the essential terms of the contract. The agreement was an antenuptial contract, executed in contemplation of a forthcoming marriage. The parties understood t…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw