GLADYS G. WILLIAMSON
v.
J. KENNETH WILLIAMSON

Fla. | 1945-06-15
CHAPMAN, C. J., concurs., BROWN, THOMAS and SEBRING, JJ., agree to. conclusion., BUFORD and ADAMS, JJ., dissent., ADAMS, J., concurs.
156 Fla. 89 Florida Supreme Court (1945) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 22 So. 2d 578
Cited by 8 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 third appeal of a chain divorce case, the Florida Supreme Court clarifies its prior holdings regarding post-divorce alimony modifications. The Court reversed the lower court's dismissal of the wife's petition for additional alimony, holding that she has the right to apply for additional alimony payments and related relief before the expiration of the initially-ordered eighteen-month period.


Holding

The Court held that the wife has the right to apply for additional alimony and related relief within the eighteen-month period set by the original decree, and that her petition states a cause of action. The lower court's dismissal order was reversed with directions to reinstate the petition.


Key Quotes

“the door was left open so that she may enter, within the eighteen months period, and apply for additional payments of alimony to be made after the expiration of the eighteen months. She is not precluded from applying within the eighteen months period for additional sums with which to defray costs of medical treatment or a surgical operation upon her body, the merits of the application to be considered upon the showing made.”

Clarifies the Court's prior holding that the wife has the right to apply for additional alimony during the ordered period

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

Gladys G. Williamson and J. Kenneth Williamson, a hygienist and attorney respectively, divorced after a marriage marked by the wife's extravagant spen…

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
TERRELL, J.:

TERRELL, J.:

This suit is symbolic of a phenomenon new in the law of domestic relations but growing in frequency, a chain divorce suit dealing with a chain marriage. This is the third time it has reached this Court and the only question we are admonished to illuminate is a controversy between counsel as to what we decided in our former adjudications.

The first appeal was from a final decree granting a divorce and awarding alimony in the sum of $150 per month for nine months and then $75 per month for nine months more. There was no finding as to which spouse got tough. On appeal, we affirmed “without prejudice to the appellant to apply prior to the expiration of the eighteen months period provided for in the decree to the chancellor for an order requiring additional payments of alimony to be made by the appellee.” Williamson v. Williamson, 153 Fla. 357, 14 So. (2nd) 712.

Relying on this Court’s order, appellant seasonably filed her bill for additional alimony. Appellee’s motion to dismiss was overruled but on appeal to this Court by certiorari, the latter judgment was quashed, this Court saying in part, “the door was left open so that she may enter, within the eighteen months period, and apply for additional payments of alimony *90to be made after the expiration of the eighteen months. She is not precluded from applying within the eighteen months period for additional sums with which to defray costs of medical .treatment or -a surgical operation upon her body, the merits of the application to be considered upon the showing made.” Williamson v. Williamson, 154 Fla. 200, 17 So. (2nd) 78.

Relying on the latter order, appellant again filed her petition for additional payments of alimony and with it a petition for temporary alimony, attorneys’ fees, and suit money. Both petitions were dismissed and we are now confronted with an appeal from the order of dismissal.

These adjudications gave both parties to understand that on proper showing made, appellant could appiy for and secure such additional allowances for alimony as the chancellor might think mete and proper under the circumstances. If apellant is shown to be without means, temporary alimony, attorneys’ fees, and suit money would follow.

The- chancellor did not indicate why he cut off alimony at the end of eighteen months so .we may place our own interpretation on the record as to this. The parties to the cause were shown to be very highly respected; he was a very reputable attorney and she was a very reputable hygienist. Both had jounced over the matrimonial highway before and had acquired some rather opulent habits that they seemed able to pay for. As a sample of hers, she insisted on sending a son by a former marriage to Groton. This was also a sample of her indiscretion which he stood up like a man and gratified for a season, but eventually he found refuge in Proverbs 21:9, and took up his abode in an inn rather than “in the corner of the housetop.”

He was not inveigled or wheedled into the snare in which he found himself. She hung out as many red lights to “caution” as a vigilant policeman would place around an open manhole to warn pedestrians. He knew that her hands were allergic to dishwater and dirty clothes, two very essetial adjuncts to any well ordered household. He knew she had a yen for the luxuries and he was on notice that lean years do not usually suppress a bourbon taste. Both were on *91notice that they would soon convoy the “after you, my dear Alphonse” phase of the honeymoon ipto the give and take phase and that only a fine spirit of concessio'n would keep that from being a potential boxing bout. A wooer of course has his option to ignore such “cautions” but when he does, he is estopped to- raise them in support of a claim for divorce or one to resist alimony.

As to why the chancellor cut off alimony at eighteen months, it may be that he considered both parties responsible for their disagreement and that alimony should be extended no longer than it would take appellant to settle her nerves and reorientate herself in her former business. She abandoned her profession and her income for the marital experiment and since this turned out to be a fiasco, it is not unreasonable that alimony be extended to this extent. We can think of other reasons that may have actuated the chancellor but we see equity enough to uphold him for any of them.

We think the petition in this case states a cause of action for the purpose filed; and that it is within the contemplation of our former holdings. The order appealed from is therefore reversed with directions to reinstate the petition.

Reversed.

CHAPMAN, C. J., concurs.

BROWN, THOMAS and SEBRING, JJ., agree to. conclusion.

BUFORD and ADAMS, JJ., dissent.

BUFORD, J.,

dissenting:

This appeal brings for review order dismissing petition for additional alimony, suit money and money allegedly required for payment of the expense of surgical operation and medical treatment.

There is no material difference between the allegations of the petition here under consideration and that which was involved in certiorari proceedings in which this Court entered its order on February 22, 1944 in which we quashed the order of the circuit court denying the motion of respondent to dismiss the petition then before the court.

*92No material new or different matters or conditions are presented. v

The order dismissing the petition should be affirmed.

ADAMS, J., concurs.

Dissent
BUFORD, J.,

BUFORD, J.,

dissenting:

This appeal brings for review order dismissing petition for additional alimony, suit money and money allegedly required for payment of the expense of surgical operation and medical treatment.

There is no material difference between the allegations of the petition here under consideration and that which was involved in certiorari proceedings in which this Court entered its order on February 22, 1944 in which we quashed the order of the circuit court denying the motion of respondent to dismiss the petition then before the court. No material new or different matters or conditions are presented. v

The order dismissing the petition should be affirmed.

ADAMS, J., concurs.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Zalka v. Zalka, 100 So. 2d 157 (Fla. 1958)
    …as clearly entitled to alimony in some amount; and no valid reason for limiting her alimony to a nine-year period (the son was-almost twelve years of age at the time of the divorce) can be gleaned from the rceord. Cf. Williamson v. Williamson, 1945, 156 Fla. 89, 22 So. 2d 578; Knox v. Knox, 1947, 159 Fla. 123, 31 So. 2d 159. By its terms, the support provision of the decree was for the benefit of both the appellee and the children and not for the benefit of the children alone. The able Chancellor followed…
  • Slimer v. Slimer, 112 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 2d DCA 1959)
    …tent with the needs of the wife and the children and which will conform reasonably with the mode of living that the husband has set for himself. Affirmed in part, reversed in part. KANNER, C. J., and ALLEN, J., concur. . Williamson v. Williamson, 156 Fla. 89, 22 So. 2d 578. . Astor v. Astor, Fla.1956, 89 So. 2d 645.…
  • Knox v. Knox, 159 Fla. 123 (Fla. 1947)
    …s after date of the final decree is not sustained by the authorities. The case of Williamson v. Williamson, 153 Fla. 357, 14 So. (2nd) 712, is cited to sustain this view. For subsequent appearances of the same case see 154 Fla. 200, 17 So. (2nd) 78; 156 Fla. 89, 22 So. (2nd) 578. We think there is merit in the contention and we find no reasonable basis in the record for limiting the payment of alimony to the wife for a period of five years after the date of the final decree, regardless of several holdings…

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