Dwyer v. Dwyer, Z--33
Decision Date | 20 February 1976 |
Docket Number | No. Z--33,Z--33 |
Citation | 327 So.2d 74 |
Parties | Edward Joseph DWYER, Appellant, v. Betty Jean DWYER, Appellee. |
Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Lacy Mahon, Jr., Mahon, Farley & Vickers, Jacksonville, for appellant.
Elliot Zisser, Jacksonville, for appellee.
The parties, formerly husband and wife, were divorced by final judgment dated October 21, 1968. Custody of the two minor children of the parties was awarded to their mother, appellee here. The children's father, appellant here, was required to make semi-monthly support payments. No termination date for the child support payments was contained in the final judgment. Chapter 73--21, Laws of Florida, removing the disability of non-age of persons 18 years of age, became effective July 1, 1973. 1 Upon the older of the offspring of the parties becoming self-supporting and the younger attaining 18 years of age appellant petitioned for modification of the final judgment seeking, inter alia, termination of the child support payments. By the order here appealed, which is dated May 28, 1975, the learned trial judge terminated support for the older offspring whom the parties stipulated to be self-supporting but required continued support for the younger one although admittedly over the age of 18 years and not found by the trial judge to have been dependent. 2
In Finn v. Finn, supra, the Supreme Court of Florida held that since Chapter 73--21 is prospective in application, child supports which had been ordered prior to the effective cate of the act did not necessarily terminate on the 'child' attaining 18 years of age and that a person over the age of 18 years might nevertheless be 'a dependent person' although not physically nor mentally incompetent. The writer of that opinion laboriously considered the concept of dependency but there is nothing in the opinion to suggest that a person over the age of 18 but under the age of 21 who is physically and mentally competent is presumed to be 'a dependent person'. Indeed, it is quite clear that Finn v. Finn and Chapter 73--21, Laws of Florida, anticipate that court-ordered support of a person over the age of 18 years must be conditioned upon a determination and finding of dependency.
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