Allison v. Allison, BK-314

• Decision Date: 17 July 1986
• Docket Number: No. BK-314,BK-314
• Parties: 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1567 Chiyo ALLISON, Appellant, v. Donald Edward ALLISON Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1201

491 So.2d 1201

11 Fla. L. Weekly 1567

Chiyo ALLISON, Appellant, v. Donald Edward ALLISON Appellee.

No. BK-314.

District Court of Appeal of Florida,

First District.

July 17, 1986.

Michael J. Korn, Jacksonville, for appellant.

Douglas C. Higginbotham, Jacksonville, for appellee.

WILLIS, BEN C. (Retired), Associate Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment of dissolution of marriage. The following issues have been presented for our consideration: (1) whether the trial court erred in failing to award the wife permanent periodic alimony, and in failing to award an adequate amount of alimony; (2) whether the trial court erred in failing to equitably distribute the marital assets of the parties; and (3) whether the trial court erred in failing to specifically address and rule in its final judgment on certain issues which were raised by the pleadings and at trial. We reverse in part and remand.

The husband and wife were married in 1962 in Okinawa, Japan, while the husband was on active duty in the United States Air Force. The wife was a nineteen-year-old Japanese national at the time. The parties subsequently returned to the United States, and the wife became a United States citizen. Three children were born of the marriage, one of whom was still a minor at the time of the parties' divorce.

During the course of the marriage the wife served as a homemaker/mother and was not employed outside the marital home. At the time of the final hearing, as the trial court found, the wife had difficulty with the English language and had "very limited skills with which to obtain satisfactory employment."

Prior to the final hearing in this cause, the wife underwent various testing and interviews to determine her employability. According to the testimony of an occupational analyst, the wife must improve her typing skills in order to do light clerical work, paying no more than $4 per hour. The expert also opined that the wife might be able to obtain work as a computer data operator, earning a salary in the level of $12,000 per year, if she were to engage in classes for two years for proper training.

The court in its final order found that the wife, unlike the husband, is "living from day to day" and has no separate funds or assets of her own. Yet, the trial court merely awarded her one year of rehabilitative alimony, instead of permanent periodic alimony.

It is well settled that the purpose of permanent periodic alimony is to provide the needs and necessities of life to a former spouse as they were established during the marriage of the parties. Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197, 1201 (Fla.1980). On the other hand, rehabilitative alimony is intended to "establish the capacity for self-support of the receiving spouse, either through the redevelopment of previous skills or provision of the training necessary to develop potential supportive skills." Canakaris at 1202. Rehabilitative alimony is therefore appropriate only where the evidence suggests that the wife can be rehabilitated to a financial stature that would permit her to become self-supporting. Sever v. Sever, 467 So.2d 492 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985).

In Colucci v. Colucci, 392 So.2d 577 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1981), it was held that the trial court's failure to award permanent alimony to a wife who had no present ability to support herself and no reasonable prospect that she would be able to do so in the future was error, notwithstanding the court's reservation of jurisdiction to consider awarding permanent alimony after the period set out. The district court noted the husband's argument that it was unimportant what the alimony was termed in light of the wife's ability to have it reviewed and modified. The court stated that such an argument is unimpressive as the error committed was harmful to the wife by requiring her to shoulder the burden of demonstrating a significant change in circumstances before there could be a modification.

Likewise, in Fazli v. Fazli, 434 So.2d 1022 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983), a case with facts remarkably similar to those in the present case, the district court found an award of rehabilitative alimony was error where the wife, a Pakistani national, of a nineteen-year marriage had no appreciable job history or education in the United States and a "less than perfect command of the English language." The court also noted that the husband was earning $24,000 per year of which he only was required to...