THOMAS H. MARKHAM, PETITIONER,
v.
NANCY S. MARKHAM, RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1973-01-31
No. 42667
CARLTON, C. J., and ROBERTS and ERVIN, JJ., concur., MELVIN, WOODROW H„ Circuit Judge, dissents with opinion.
272 So. 2d 813 Florida Supreme Court (1973) Negative Treatment
Cited by 33 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed that wiretap evidence obtained by a husband without consent from either party to the intercepted conversations is inadmissible in a domestic relations case, holding that Florida law requires court authorization and consent from at least one party before such recordings may be admitted.


Holding

The recordings are inadmissible. Florida law, as codified in §934.01(4), prohibits the admission of wire communication recordings when none of the parties has consented, absent court authorization. No exception exists for domestic relations cases, and Florida constitutional privacy rights preclude a spouse from using electronic surveillance to intercept the other spouse's communications.


Headnotes

[1] A recording of a telephone conversation is inadmissible in evidence if neither party to the conversation consents to the interception, absent authorization by a court of…

[2] A husband does not have the right to invade his wife's right of privacy by using electronic devices to intercept private telephone conversations.

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Key Quotes

“The interception of the conversations resulted from the wiretapping activities by a third party. The subject statute does not provide that a subscriber-husband is permitted to wiretap. It states unequivocally that 'when none of the parties to the communication has consented', such interception should be allowed only upon a court's order.”

Establishes that the statute provides no exception for a spouse conducting wiretapping and requires court authorization.

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Facts & Procedural History

During a dissolution of marriage action, the husband sought to introduce tape recordings of telephone conversations he had intercepted by wiretapping …

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Opinion of the Court
BOYD, Justice.

BOYD, Justice.

This cause is before us on petition for writ of certiorari to review the decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, reported at 265 So.2d 59. The decision sought to be reviewed has been certified by the District Court as one passing on a question of great public interest, thereby giving this Court jurisdiction under § 4, Article V, of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A.

Respondent-wife brought an action for the dissolution of marriage. During the presentation of testimony on the issue of temporary custody of the children of the parties, petitioner-husband offered in evi-dencc recordings of telephone conversations" intercepted when he tapped two tele-pFoneTmes coming into the home oF the paftjesi The wife filed motion to suppress the intercepted wire communication contents and evidence derived therefrom, relying upon Title 18, Section 2518, of the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1968, and Section 934.06, Florida Statutes, F.S.A.

The trial court denied the motion to suppress and ruled that the tape recordings were admissible, preserving only to the wife the right to object to portions of the recordings on the grounds of relevancy or materiality.

*814On appeal, the District Court held that the statutory and constitutional law of the State of Florida precluded the admissibility into evidence of a recording of a telephone conversation if neither party thereto consents, in the absence of authorization for such recording by a court of competent jurisdiction. In reaching its decision, the District Court, relying principally on constitutional guarantees of the right to privacy and Florida Statutes § 934.01 (4)1, F.S. A., held:2

“The undisputed facts in this cause are that neither party to the conversations consented to the interception. The interception of the conversations resulted from the wiretapping activities by a third party. The subject statute does not provide that a subscriber-husband is permitted to wiretap. It states unequivocally that ‘when none of the parties to the communication has consented’, such interception should be allowed only upon a court’s order. The cited Florida constitutional provisions shores up the conclusion that a husband does not possess the right to invade his wife’s right of privacy by utilizing electronic devices.” (Emphasis theirs)

The District Court has correctly answered the question presented and its decision is adopted as the decision of this Court. The Statute in question makes no exception allowing admission of wiretap evidence in domestic relations cases when neither party to the communication consented to the interception.

Accordingly, the decision of the District Court in this cause is affirmed and the writ is discharged.

It is so ordered.

CARLTON, C. J., and ROBERTS and ERVIN, JJ., concur.

MELVIN, WOODROW H„ Circuit Judge, dissents with opinion.

MELVIN, WOODROW H., Circuit Judge

(dissenting).

I respectfully record here my dissent.

The Congress of the United States of America and the members of the Legislature of the State of Florida are a composition of reasonable and intelligent citizenry elected by the people for the purpose of representing them in the law writing branch of the government. As I understand the provisions in the Constitution and the statute upon which the majority of this great Court would bottom its opinion the same are based upon the common sense proposition that before a person may be heard to complain as to a telephone interception, that person must have had a reasonable right to expect that such communication would not be subject to interception. That is to say, such person must have a reasonable right under known existing circumstances to expect privacy in connection with the telephone conversation.

The situation to which this Court would so apply the law is one which in my judgment the writers thereof never contemplated.

The husband caused an intercepting device to be placed upon his telephone lines, the listing of which was in his name and for which he paid the required charge. The lines in question were to his home. We then have the relatively simple question of whether or not his wife while within the sacred confines of the marital home, *815had a reasonable right to expect privacy in the use of telephone lines connected from the marital domicile to the place where the recipient of her affections was listening.

I perceive that neither the Congress nor the Legislature of Florida could have envisioned by the enactment of the Constitution and statute referred to, that the husband no longer could be considered the head of his household; that he no longer could be considered as the protector of his wife and his marriage or his family. We are now invited, however, to conclude that the Congress and the Legislature intended to grant such right of privacy to a spouse in the furtherance of his or her conspiracy with a lover to break two of the basic ten commandments relating to human conduct. I can no more perceive a right of privacy on the part of those here thus engaged to so use the telephone lines in the reasonable expectation of privacy relating thereto, than would have been so had they claimed the right of privacy in the use of the husband’s bedroom. Such a conclusion would seem to me to be tortured logic. I therefore note my dissent.

Dissent
MELVIN, WOODROW H., Circuit Judge

MELVIN, WOODROW H., Circuit Judge

(dissenting).

I respectfully record here my dissent.

The Congress of the United States of America and the members of the Legislature of the State of Florida are a composition of reasonable and intelligent citizenry elected by the people for the purpose of representing them in the law writing branch of the government. As I understand the provisions in the Constitution and the statute upon which the majority of this great Court would bottom its opinion the same are based upon the common sense proposition that before a person may be heard to complain as to a telephone interception, that person must have had a reasonable right to expect that such communication would not be subject to interception. That is to say, such person must have a reasonable right under known existing circumstances to expect privacy in connection with the telephone conversation.

The situation to which this Court would so apply the law is one which in my judgment the writers thereof never contemplated.

The husband caused an intercepting device to be placed upon his telephone lines, the listing of which was in his name and for which he paid the required charge. The lines in question were to his home. We then have the relatively simple question of whether or not his wife while within the sacred confines of the marital home, had a reasonable right to expect privacy in the use of telephone lines connected from the marital domicile to the place where the recipient of her affections was listening.

I perceive that neither the Congress nor the Legislature of Florida could have envisioned by the enactment of the Constitution and statute referred to, that the husband no longer could be considered the head of his household; that he no longer could be considered as the protector of his wife and his marriage or his family. We are now invited, however, to conclude that the Congress and the Legislature intended to grant such right of privacy to a spouse in the furtherance of his or her conspiracy with a lover to break two of the basic ten commandments relating to human conduct. I can no more perceive a right of privacy on the part of those here thus engaged to so use the telephone lines in the reasonable expectation of privacy relating thereto, than would have been so had they claimed the right of privacy in the use of the husband’s bedroom. Such a conclusion would seem to me to be tortured logic. I therefore note my dissent.


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Citator

Cited By (16 total)

  • State v. Tsavaris, 394 So. 2d 418 (Fla. 1981)
    …er to the privacy of his conversation is of greater societal value than the interest served by permitting eavesdropping or wiretapping.” State v. Walls, 356 So. 2d at 296 (quoting from Markham v. Markham, 265 So. 2d 59 (Fla. 1st DCA 1972), affirmed, 272 So. 2d 813 (1973)). Hence, the Florida act evinces a greater concern for the protection of one’s privacy interests in a conversation than does the federal act. Equally certain is the fact that the 1974 amendment to chapter 934 was designed to proscribe the me…
  • Smith v. State, 279 So. 2d 27 (Fla. 1973)
    …tial knowledge can be inferred without the requirement for direct proof.” We do not feel in today’s world that this is a valid basis to avoid the required evidence to prove knowledge in such a relationship. Our recent holding in Markham v. Markham, 272 So. 2d 813 (Fla.1973), that the husband had no right to invade the wife’s own right of privacy by utilizing electronic devices on her telephone, supports our view and raises serious question about placing reliance upon a husband’s traditional role of “head of…
  • Yordon v. Savage, 279 So. 2d 844 (Fla. 1973)
    …C. J., ROBERTS, ERVIN and McCAIN, JJ., and SPECTOR, District Court Judge, concur. DEKLE, J., dissents with opinion. . 91 Fla. 1064, 109 So. 225 (1926). . 262 So. 2d 269, 271-272 (Fla.App. 1st 1972). .265 So. 2d 59, 62 (Fla.App. 1st 1972), aff’d, 272 So. 2d 813 (Fla.1973), reh. denied. . Markham v. Markham, supra, note 3. . Gates v. Foley, 247 So. 2d 40 (Fla.1971). . Hallman v. Hospital and Welfare Board of Hillsborough County, 262 So. 2d 669 (Fla.1972). . Beard v. Beard, supra, note 2. .Chapter 72-35…

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