CLYDE C. SPEARS, APPELLANT,
v.
LOUISA T. SPEARS, APPELLEE
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In this divorce appeal, the court upheld a separation agreement requiring ongoing child support and alimony payments, finding the agreement was voluntarily entered into and fair. The court reversed only the award of attorney's fees to the wife, finding it an abuse of discretion given the wife's superior financial resources.
The separation agreement was validly entered into and remains binding. Child support continues under its terms because the agreement expressly provided for continuation during the daughter's disability, which was found to exist. The alimony award was not an abuse of discretion as the agreement was fair and equitable. However, the award of the husband's attorney's fees to the wife was an abuse of discretion because the wife's financial resources exceeded the husband's.
[1] A separation agreement incorporated into a final judgment of dissolution is enforceable as a contract if voluntarily entered into and found to be fair and equitable by th…
[2] A contractual obligation for child support, as set forth in a separation agreement, may extend beyond the child's majority if the agreement expressly provides for such co…
Previewing 2 of 5 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“To the contrary, the record contains substantial competent evidence to support the trial court's finding that the agreement was voluntarily entered into and that it is fair and equitable.”
Establishes the standard for reviewing separation agreements and the evidentiary support for upholding the agreement as voluntary and fair.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe parties executed a written separation agreement approximately two years before their divorce was finalized. The agreement required the husband to …
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OWEN, Chief Judge.
Approximately two years before their marriage was dissolved by the judgment here appealed, the parties had entered into a written separation agreement which, among other things, required appellant husband to pay to appellee wife certain sums monthly for alimony and child support. The court, finding that the agreement had been voluntarily entered into and that it was fair and equitable, approved the agreement and incorporated it by reference into the final judgment.
Appellant first contends that the agreement is unconscionable and was not voluntarily entered into by him. A review of the record fails to disclose any basis to support this contention. To the contrary, the record contains substantial competent evidence to support the trial court’s finding that the agreement was voluntarily entered into and that it is fair and equitable.
Appellant next contends that child support payments should not be continued to the appellant’s adult daughter who is employed and living away from home. As an abstract proposition, the point would appear to have merit. Perla v. Perla, Fla.1952, 58 So. 2d 689. However, it fails to take into account the facts in this case.
The agreement, which was signed in July 1972, just five months before the daughter’s 21st birthday, expressly recognized that the daughter suffered a disability, and in recognition thereof provided that the support payments would continue indefinitely, “for so long as the disability of the said child shall continue, or until such time as she marries, or until such time as changed as to amount by the agreement of the parties or by order of court.” At the time of the final hearing in May 1974, the court made an express finding that the disability of the daughter was continuing as of that time. In spite of appellant’s argument to the contrary, the record supports this finding. Appellant does not contend that there was any other change of circumstances subsequent to the execution of the agreement which under the terms of the agreement would call for termination of the support payments. Thus, there is no reason why such agreement should not continue to be valid and binding between the parties as to conditions existing at the time the agreement was made. Cf. Bailey v. Bailey, Fla.App.1974, 300 So. 2d 294. Appellant’s obligation being contractual, we need not consider his contention that his common law obligation to support the child had terminated.
The foregoing views relative to appellant’s contractual obligation under the agreement would apply also to his contention that the award of alimony was an abuse of discretion.
Appellee wife was gainfully employed and her earnings, coupled with the amounts awarded her for alimony and child support, exceeded the husband’s net income after deducting alimony and child support. The wife’s assets, while limited, exceeded the husband’s. The financial resources of the wife being greater than those of the husband, it was an abuse of discretion to require the husband to pay the wife’s attorney’s fees.
The final judgment is modified by striking therefrom the provision requiring the husband to pay the wife’s attorney’s fees, and, as thus modified, is affirmed.
Affirmed, as modified.
CROSS and MAGER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Perla v. Perla, 58 So.2d 689 (Fla. 1952)
- Bailey v. Bailey, 300 So. 2d 294 (Fla. 4th DCA 1974)