SAMUEL PAUL DEUTSCH, APPELLANT,
v.
ELAINE SIMPSON DEUTSCH, APPELLEE
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Associate Judge.
The appellant, former husband of the petitioner, appeals an order committing him for contempt for the failure to pay his former wife an alimony arrearage.
The trial court announced during the hearing, almost in the same breath that it found him in contempt, that the court would also have to reduce his alimony payments on a temporary basis:
“THE COURT: I will give him 30 days to make the $2,400 back alimony payments. And in the event he does not do so, he will serve a term of 30 days in jail.
MR. PATTERSON: I will draw up the order. THE COURT: As to the reduction, I am going to have to take into consideration the testimony, which is not refuted, that he can’t make payments at this time because of his problems; and I will have to reduce his alimony on a temporary basis.”
The trial court made no finding, now clearly required by the law, that the appellant presently had the ability to comply with the order and was willfully refusing to do so or that the petitioner 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. Accordingly, the order of the trial court is quashed and the cause remanded with directions to make the required finding, if supported by the record, or otherwise vacate the order of contempt. Garó v. Garo, 347 So. 2d 418 (Fla. 1977), Faircloth v. Fair-cloth, 339 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 1976).
QUASHED and REMANDED with directions.
ALDERMAN, C. J., and LETTS, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Sokol v. Sokol, 441 So. 2d 682 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)…igated party’s ability to pay the amount due or show that the court found that the party had voluntarily divested such ability. Faircloth v. Faircloth, 339 So. 2d 650 (Fla.1976); Smith v. Smith, 430 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Deutsch v. Deutsch, 349 So. 2d 725 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). The evidence at the hearing reveals that the husband did not have the ability to pay financial awards to the extent ordered by the court. The trial court may nevertheless impute an income to a spouse where the evidence indicate…
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Deutsch v. Deutsch, 368 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979)…DAUKSCH, Judge. On appeal is an order of the trial court finding appellant in contempt for non-payment of alimony. This order is reversed for the same reason we reversed the prior order in this case as reported in Deutsch v. Deutsch, 349 So. 2d 725 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). There was no proper finding of wilfulness and no proper finding of ability to pay. Beyond the insufficiency of the order, the court summarily precluded the appellant from presenting his case thereby rendering the insufficient or…
Authorities Cited
- Faircloth v. Faircloth, 339 So. 2d 650 (Fla. 1976)
- Garo v. Garo, 347 So. 2d 418 (Fla. 1977)