Ensley v. Ensley, 90-893
| Decision Date | 25 April 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-893,90-893 |
| Citation | 578 So.2d 497,16 Fla. L. Weekly 1110 |
| Parties | Beverly Ledford ENSLEY, Appellant, v. Robert Clyde ENSLEY, Jr., Appellee. 578 So.2d 497, 16 Fla. L. Week. 1110 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Marcia K. Lippincott of Marcia K. Lippincott, P.A., Orlando, for appellant.
Robert G. Petree of Bornstein & Petree, P.A., Orlando, for appellee.
The only issue that merits discussion in this appeal of a judgment dissolving a marriage is whether the trial court correctly refused to impute income to the husband who voluntarily terminated his job and who was unable thereafter to find employment earning a similar salary.
This seventeen-year marriage produced a child who was thirteen years of age at the time of dissolution. The husband had worked for United Parcel Service (UPS) for fifteen years as a loss prevention manager and earned a salary of more than $60,000 per year when he terminated his employment. The termination took place the day after he announced to his wife that he was moving out of the house. As he was moving out, the wife testified, the husband told her he was quitting his job and that, "You'll be sorry when I quit because you'll be the one who suffers." The husband testified that he quit because his wife threatened to get him fired. The husband's assertion that a "no rehire" policy prevents him from regaining his job with UPS was unchallenged. Shortly after terminating with UPS, the husband began to search diligently for a comparable job but was able to find one that paid only $23,920 per year.
The wife urged the trial court to impute to the husband the $60,000 salary earned at UPS in fashioning support for the child. The trial court refused to so rule, stating concisely and reasonably:
I'm not going to be able to impute any income to the husband beyond what he is earning currently, which I think is the maximum that's been demonstrated that he can earn now. Although it would appear to me that he quit his job, a good-paying job with UPS, either out of spite or a sense of frustration, and that's regrettable, but those things happen, and I think we have to take the facts as we find them, and, so, in fashioning your final argument, perhaps the rest of the testimony that you have, you're going to have to present or will be presenting, you have to take that into consideration. The court would also be open to considering increasing the amount of support if the circumstances change.
The wife cites section 61.30(2)(b), Florida Statutes (1989), in support of her allegation that the court erred in refusing to impute the higher income. Subsection (2)(b) provides:
Income shall be imputed to an unemployed or underemployed parent when such employment or underemployment is found to be voluntary on that parent's part, absent physical or mental incapacity or other circumstances over which the parent has no control. In the event of such voluntary unemployment or underemployment, the employment potential and probable earnings level of the parent shall be determined based on his or her recent work history, occupational qualifications, and prevailing earnings level in the community....
The wife...
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