State ex rel. Pearson v. Johnson In and For Broward County

• Decision Date: 30 April 1976
• Docket Number: No. 76--335,76--335
• Citation: 334 So.2d 54
• Parties: STATE of Florida ex rel. Cynthia M. PEARSON, Relator, v. The Honorable W. Clayton JOHNSON, Circuit Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, IN AND FOR BROWARD COUNTY, and Harry L. Pearson, Jr., Respondents.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 54

334 So.2d 54

STATE of Florida ex rel. Cynthia M. PEARSON, Relator, v. The Honorable W. Clayton JOHNSON, Circuit Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, IN AND FOR BROWARD COUNTY, and Harry L. Pearson, Jr., Respondents.

No. 76--335.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

April 30, 1976.

Rehearing Denied June 2, 1976.

Harry G. Carratt, of Morgan, Carratt & O'Connor, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for relator.

Neal R. Kalis of Shaffner & Shaffner, Fort Lauderdale, for respondents.

OWEN, Judge.

A suggestion for writ of prohibition was filed as an original proceeding accompanied by supporting brief as required by Rule 4.5(d)(1) F.A.R. Having issued a rule directed to respondent and having now considered respondent's return and brief and relator's reply brief, we conclude that the rule was improvidently entered and that the suggestion for writ of phohibition should be denied.

The suggestion, filed here on February 23, 1976, alleged in substance that respondent was acting in excess of his power, jurisdiction and authority in that, unless prohibited, he would on the 8 day of March, 1976, hold petitioner in contempt and impose certain sanctions against her, for her failure to comply with an order of the court of January 15, 1976, wherein petitioner had been ordered to execute and deliver to her former husband a quit-claim deed conveying to him her interest in certain real property in Lee County, Florida. The suggestion further alleged: that the marriage of petitioner and her former husband had been dissolved by final judgment entered June 26, 1974; that the judgment had incorporated therein the provisions of a property settlement agreement between petitioner and her former husband, the terms of which required petitioner to quit claim to her husband all real property Then titled in his name alone; that said judgment had not been appealed and had since become final; that the real property which the court, in its order of January 15, 1976, had required petitioner to convey to her former husband was titled in the name of Both petitioner and her former husband jointly; and that such property was not required by the property settlement agreement or the final judgment to be conveyed by her to her former husband.

The court's order of January 15, 1976, was entered on the former husband's motion for an order enforcing the final judgment. The court has inherent power to enforce its orders and judgments, the procedure for which is prescribed by Rule 1.570 RCP. In exercising its power and authority to enforce its judgment, the court may commit error in its ruling, and still not be acting without or in excess of its power. Essentially, petitioner's claim here is that the trial court has erroneously construed the unambiguous language of the property settlement agreement so as to require petitioner to convey real property which the parties by their agreement did not require of her. If the court did err as contended by petitioner, a point we do not decide, any such...