Nuckols v. Nuckols, 199

• Decision Date: 09 September 1966
• Docket Number: No. 199,199
• Citation: Nuckols v. Nuckols, 189 So.2d 832 (Fla. App. 1966)
• Parties: Alice Browne NUCKOLS, Appellant, v. William P. NUCKOLS, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 832

189 So.2d 832

Alice Browne NUCKOLS, Appellant, v. William P. NUCKOLS, Appellee.

No. 199.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Sept. 9, 1966.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 28, 1966.

Charles E. Davis, of Fishback, Davis, Dominick & Troutman, Orlando, for appellant.

J. R. Wells, of Maguire, Voorhis & Wells, Orlando, for appellee.

LOPEZ, AQUILINO, Jr., Associate Judge.

A wife sued her husband for separate maintenance. He counterclaimed against her seeking affirmative relief in the form of a divorce. A contested final hearing resulted in a decree of divorce entered upon the husband's counterclaim. The wife, plaintiff in the trial court, brings this appeal.

In the course of the final hearing and during pre-trial discovery efforts the husband refused to answer questions asked of him concerning an improper relationship between the husband and a woman other than his wife by successfully asserting his privilege against self-incrimination. This was accomplished without imposition of penalty.

We hold, in answer to the point raised by the wife in this appellate proceeding, that, when her husband filed his counterclaim seeking independent relief beneficial to him, he became an actor, a profiteer of the judicial machinery and process, so as to bring him within the doctrine of the cases of Stockham v. Stockham, Fla.1964, 168 So.2d 320, 4 A.L.R.3d 539; Lund v. Lund, Fla.App.1964, 161 So.2d 873. See also Annotation, 4 A.L.R.3d 545. That doctrine is to the effect that, while one may in civil litigation exercise his privilege against...