Echols v. Elswick, 93-2510
| Decision Date | 20 June 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-2510,93-2510 |
| Parties | 19 Fla. L. Weekly D1367 Willie Clyde ECHOLS, Appellant, v. Hazel R. ELSWICK f/k/a Hazel R. Echols, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Mark Evan Frederick, P.A., Destin, for appellant.
Carroll L. McCauley of McCauley & Peters, Panama City, for appellee.
The parties appeal and cross-appeal that portion of a final judgment of dissolution of marriage which awards the appellee rehabilitative alimony. The appellant also challenges the award of attorney's fees to the appellee. We reverse the award of rehabilitative alimony, but we remand for the trial court to reconsider the appellee's claim for permanent periodic alimony. We affirm the award of attorney's fees.
The parties were married in February, 1986. Both were widowed from previous marriages and had grown children. They separated in April 1992 when the appellee filed a petition for dissolution in which she sought equitable distribution of the marital assets, permanent periodic alimony and her attorney's fees. The appellant counter-petitioned, also seeking alimony. The parties resolved all issues except the alimony and attorney's fees issues prior to the final hearing. The trial court ordered that the appellee was not entitled to permanent periodic alimony. However, the court awarded appellee $400 monthly rehabilitative alimony until she reaches age 62; she was 59 at the time of the final hearing. The court further awarded the appellee attorney's fees.
The appellant first argues that the trial court erred in awarding rehabilitative alimony, and the appellee argues in her cross-appeal that the trial court should have awarded permanent periodic alimony rather than rehabilitative alimony. The record amply supports the appellee's need for alimony and the appellant's ability to pay alimony where the husband's monthly income was three times the appellee's monthly income of $660. But rehabilitative alimony may not be awarded where there is no evidence that the recipient is seeking to redevelop previous job skills or train for new ones. See Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197, 1202 (Fla.1980); Grant v. Grant, 603 So.2d 68 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992). Because no such evidence was presented in this case, the award of rehabilitative alimony must be reversed.
In denying the appellee permanent periodic alimony the court cited the appellant's poor health and the appellee's entitlement to social security benefits when she retires (which the trial court presumed would be at age 62). In light of the fact that the trial court did not find that the appellant's poor health was a bar to an award of rehabilitative alimony, and in light of the fact that the appellant's income is from retirement benefits and investments rather than his personal labor, the appellant's poor health was clearly not the decisive reason for denying permanent periodic alimony. Furthermore, the fact that the appellee might...
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Levy v. Levy, No. 2D03-2903
...not preclude such an award. Cullen, 884 So.2d at 305; Volosin v. Volosin, 382 So.2d 733, 735-36 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980); Echols v. Elswick, 638 So.2d 581, 582 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). In considering the propriety of an award of permanent alimony in a short-term marriage, the pertinent inquiry is whe......
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...the sort of future contingency trial courts are enjoined not to anticipate in permanent, periodic alimony awards. Echols v. Elswick, 638 So.2d 581, 582 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Shiveley; Davidson v. Davidson, 410 So.2d 943, 944 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, 421 So.2d 67 The majority opinion ma......
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...the sort of future contingency trial courts are enjoined not to anticipate in permanent, periodic alimony awards. Echols v. Elswick, 638 So.2d 581, 582 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). Id. at 486-87 (Benton, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (citations Based on the foregoing, we hold that ......
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Anciaux v. Anciaux, 95-00297
...the trial court should reconsider the denial of an award of permanent periodic alimony to the former wife. See Echols v. Elswick, 638 So.2d 581 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Bailey v. Bailey, 617 So.2d 815 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993); Gregoire v. Gregoire, 615 So.2d 694 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). After deducting th......
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Appellate court trends in permanent alimony for "gray-area" divorces.
...35year-old spouse in light of the fact that the marriage only lasted 13.5 years.[2] Compare this with the case of Echols v. Elswick, 638 So. 2d 581 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994), which was decided in June of 1994. In Echols, the court directed that the six-year marriage at issue was not so short as t......
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Appellate Court trends in rehabilitative alimony.
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