CURTIS H. CORBIN, APPELLANT,
v.
GERALDINE CORBIN ETHERIDGE, APPELLEE
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A party cannot be held in contempt for failure to pay monthly mortgage payments, as such payments constitute a debt prohibited from imprisonment by the Florida Constitution.
Following a divorce, the husband agreed to pay the wife $63.35 per month for a mortgage incurred during the marriage. The wife filed a petition for co…
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PER CURIAM.
Appellant-husband brings this appeal from a judgment holding him in contempt for failure to pay to appellee-wife $63.35 per month which represents the amount due on a mortgage incurred by the parties during coverture.
Appellant and Appellee were divorced on February 26, 1971. The final judgment of divorce incorporated a stipulation which in pertinent part provided that prior to their marriage the wife had owned certain property which during coverture the parties decided to mortgage. The monthly principal and interest payments on the mortgage were $63.35, and the husband agreed to pay this amount to the wife or her estate until the mortgage was satisfied. The parties then went their separate ways and thereafter the wife filed a petition to have the husband held in contempt of court for failure to pay her the $63.35 every month.
The husband argued at the hearing below that the payment of the $63.35 represented payment of a debt as it was for the settlement of property rights and thus that he could not be held in contempt. We agree.
The husband’s obligation was to pay the mortgage. Once the mortgage was satisfied his obligation ended. It did not end if the wife remarried or died. The Constitution of the State prohibits a person from being imprisoned for failure to pay his debts. (Florida Constitution, Article I, Section 11, Declaration of Rights, F.S.A.) The other points posed by Appellant are without merit. The judgment appealed is reversed solely on the basis that Appellant cannot be imprisoned for failure to pay •monthly mortgage payments to Appellee.
Reversed.
RAWLS, C. J., and BOYER and Mc-CORD, JJ., concur.
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Murphy v. Murphy, 370 So. 2d 403 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)…short period of time upon the provision that failure to pay will result in confinement must be based upon a willful and continuing contempt of the authority of the court in order to avoid the stigma of imprisonment for debt. Cf. Corbin v. Etheridge, 296 So. 2d 59 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974); and Howell v. Howell, 207 So. 2d 507 (Fla. 2d DCA 1968). Accordingly, for the reasons herein set forth, the final judgment is affirmed and the order of April 10, 1978, holding the appellant John S. Murphy in contempt is reverse…
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Chapman v. Lamm, 388 So. 2d 1048 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980)…o. 2d 650 (Fla.1976); and Gersten v. Gersten, 281 So. 2d 607 (Fla.3d DCA 1973). When the obligation has been converted into a debt to a third person, it no longer carries the public necessity for enforcement by imprisonment. See Corbin v. Etheridge, 296 So. 2d 59 (Fla.lst DCA 1974); and State ex rel. Gillham v. Phillips, 193 So. 2d 26 (Fla.2d DCA 1966). The fact that the State is the third party does not transfer to the State a greater right to the remedy of contempt than that held by a private litigant. See…
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Schminkey v. Schminkey, 400 So. 2d 121 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981)…ution prohibits imprisonment for debt.1 Article I, Section 11, Florida Constitution. Accord, State ex rel Cahn v. Mason, 148 Fla. 263, 4 So. 2d 255 (Fla.1941); State ex rel. Reno v. Richardson, 348 So. 2d 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); Corbin v. Etheridge, 296 So. 2d 59 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974); State ex rel. Gillham v. Phillips, 193 So. 2d 26 (Fla.2d DCA 1966). The order of contempt is quashed and the cause is reversed. Although the cases cited are apropos especially Cahn v. Mason, supra, we cannot help but think that…
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