JOHN L. PEARCE, APPELLANT,
v.
BARBARA MILLER PEARCE, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1977-01-14
Nos. CC-398 and CC-413
BOYER, C. J., and McCORD, J., concur.
341 So. 2d 282 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1977) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 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.


Holding

The court affirmed the denial of the child support reduction but reversed and remanded the contempt order for lack of an affirmative finding of willful non-compliance.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant appealed orders denying his petition to reduce child support and holding him in contempt for non-payment. The trial court denied the reducti…

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
MILLS, Judge.

MILLS, Judge.

Mr. Pearce appeals from an order denying his petition for reduction of child support and appeals from an order holding him in contempt for failure to pay child support.

Mr. Pearce has failed to clearly show that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to modify child support. We cannot substitute our judgment for that of the trial court, therefore, the order denying reduction of child support is affirmed.

The contempt order adjudges Mr. Pearce guilty of willful contempt. It fails to make any affirmative finding that he presently has the ability to comply with the child support order and willfully refuses to do so, or that he previously had the ability to comply but divested himself of that ability through his fault or neglect designed to frustrate the intent and purpose of the order. Such is necessary. Faircloth v. Faircloth, 339 So. 2d 650, opinion filed November 18, 1976, Supreme Court of Florida.

Accordingly, we remand this order to the trial court to make such affirmative finding if supported by the record or otherwise vacate the order. When this is accomplished, the Clerk is directed to forward a certified copy of the order to this Court, and it will then entertain such further action as the parties to this appeal present to it.

BOYER, C. J., and McCORD, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Hamra v. Hamra, 350 So. 2d 538 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977)
    …mself of that ability through his fault or neglect designed to frustrate the intent and purpose of the order.” Faircloth v. Faircloth, 339 So. 2d 650, 651 (Fla.1976). See also Altieri v. Altieri, 341 So. 2d 525 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); Pearce v. Pearce, 341 So. 2d 282 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). No such finding is contained in the contempt order in this case. Accordingly, the order appealed from is reversed and the cause remanded to the trial court to make the above affirmative finding if supported by the record herein…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw