LILLIAN B. PARRY, APPELLANT,
v.
ALVIN B. PARRY, APPELLEE
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In a divorce dissolution case, the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal partially affirmed and partially reversed the trial court's judgment, which awarded the wife exclusive possession of the marital home (conditioned on her mother's residence there) and mortgage/tax payments while denying alimony. The appellate court held that the trial court should have retained jurisdiction to award future alimony if circumstances changed and that the wife should receive contribution from the ex-husband for equity increases resulting from her mortgage payments upon eventual sale.
The trial court should have retained jurisdiction to award alimony in the future if the circumstances of the parties change substantially and warrant such an award. Additionally, upon an eventual sale of the property, the wife should be entitled to contribution from her co-tenant ex-husband for any increased equity he receives as a result of her principal payments on the mortgage.
[1] A trial court may award exclusive possession of jointly owned marital property to one spouse so long as the other spouse consents to such an award.
[2] A trial court should retain jurisdiction to consider future alimony awards when circumstances may substantially change.
Previewing 2 of 3 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“Absent his consent such an award would not have been proper.”
Establishes that the exclusive possession award required the appellee's consent, which he provided.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceIn a marriage dissolution, the trial court awarded the wife exclusive possession of a jointly owned marital domicile, conditioned on the wife's mother…
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DOWNEY, Judge.
The wife has appealed from a final judgment of dissolution of marriage in which the trial court entered an order giving the wife exclusive possession of the jointly owned marital domicile so long as the wife’s mother “uses the home for a place to reside and in which to be given care.” Additionally, the court required the wife to pay “all expenses for maintaining such residence, including, but not limited to, mortgage payments and taxes, during such exclusive possession by respondent (wife).” The judgment also denied the wife alimony in any form.
First we note that the record shows the appellee had no objection to the exclusive possession of the jointly owned home so long as his aged mother-in-law lived there. Absent his consent such an award would not have been proper. We find no fault with the final judgment except in two respects; First, under the circumstances of this case we feel the trial court should have retained jurisdiction to allow alimony in the future if the circumstances of the parties should change substantially and warrant an award of alimony. Evans v. Evans, 337 So. 2d 998 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976); Melton v. Melton, 251 So. 2d 705 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971).
Secondly, we believe that upon an eventual sale of the property the wife should be entitled to contribution from her co-tenant, the ex-husband, of the amount of any increased equity he receives as a result of her principal payments on the mortgage which encumbers the property.
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment appealed from in part and reverse it in part and remand the cause with directions to modify the judgment in accordance with this opinion.
AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.
ALDERMAN, C. J., and LETTS, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Melton v. Melton, 251 So. 2d 705 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971)
- Evans v. Evans, 337 So. 2d 998 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976)