Picchi v. Picchi
| Decision Date | 19 February 1958 |
| Citation | 100 So.2d 627 |
| Parties | Laura PICCHI, Appellant, v. Eugene R. PICCHI, Eugene R. Picchl, Inc., a Florida corporation, and FloridaniaCorp., a Florida corporation, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
H. H. Taylor and Henry H. Taylor, Jr., Miami, for appellant.
Patton & Kanner, Miami, for Eugene R. Picchi and Eugene R. Picchi, Inc.
Silver S. Squarcia, Miami, for Floridania Corp.
Appellant Laura Picchi, who was plaintiff below, seeks reversal of a portion of a final decree of divorce by which the Chancellor settled the interests of the parties in alleged jointly owned property. Appellee Eugene R. Picchi cross-appeals seeking reversal of the alimony and other aspects of the decree.
A large number of points are assigned for consideration but our ultimate judgment must actually turn on whether the evidence in the record supports the conclusions reached by the Chancellor.
The parties were married on September 26, 1942. Three children were born of the marriage, the oldest being ten years of age when the decree of divorce was entered on April 2, 1956. By her complaint, filed in December, 1954, Laura Picchi sought a divorce from her husband on the ground of extreme cruelty. In addition she sought custody of the children and alimony. She also named as parties-defendant Eugene R. Picchi, Inc., a Florida corporation, and Floridania Corp., a Florida corporation. The complaint alleges in substance that beginning the latter part of 1949 the husband had entered upon a carefully laid scheme to deprive her of her interest in various parcles of property which she also alleges were acquired through the joint efforts and contributions of herself and her husband. She alleged that she was entitled to a one-half interest in all of the property standing in his name as well as in their joint names at the time the complaint was filed. She also sought an accounting from her husband for all the income collected by him from various jointly owned properties dating back to the latter part of 1949, when she claims that he entered upon his fraudulent scheme. It was alleged that each of the corporations was merely an alter ego of the husband; that all transactions between them and the husband should be scrutinized in the accounting and that various conveyances to these corporations should be set aside.
The Chancellor personally heard the evidence which totaled several hundred pages. By the final decree he concluded that the wife was entitled to a divorce and to custody of the children with reasonable visitation privileges to the father. He fixed an amount to be paid by the husband to the wife as alimony and as support money for the minor children. In an effort to settle the property dispute the Chancellor concluded that all property standing in the joint names of the parties at the time of the filing of the complaint constituted estates by the entireties. These parcels would be owned as tenants in common by the parties upon the entry of the decree. The property standing in the individual name of the husband was declared to be his. The sole exception was the homeplace which had been deeded to the husband in his individual name pursuant to a contract of purchase executed jointly by the husband and wife. With regard to the homestead the Chancellor concluded that it constituted an estate by the entirety at the time of the divorce. The wife and children were permitted to reside in the homeplace until such time as it should be sold. With regard to property standing in the joint names of the parties, the Chancellor decreed that the husband should account to the wife for her share of the income and profits from the date of the filing of the bill of complaint which was accompanied by the filing of a lis pendens.
Mrs. Picchi now seeks reversal of that portion of the decree which limited the accounting for income from jointly owned property to the period following the filing of the complaint.
Mr. Picchi wants the decree reversed insofar as it ordered any accounting at all and also with reference to the alimony provisions.
In this Court Mrs. Picchi contends that the Chancellor should have ordered an accounting on jointly owned property dating back to the time of the beginning of the alleged fraudulent scheme in 1949.
Mr. Picchi contends here that there should be no accounting of any income from any property until the date of the final decree. He also contends that the alimony provisions are excessive and that...
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