State ex rel. Reno v. Richardson, GG-366
| Decision Date | 15 July 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. GG-366,GG-366 |
| Citation | 348 So.2d 62 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. Gary Norwood RENO, Petitioner, v. Honorable Everett RICHARDSON, Circuit Judge, Fourth Judicial Circuit, in and for Duval County, Florida, and Honorable Dale Carson, Sheriff of Duval County, Respondents. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Donald F. Perrin of Schneider, Dunay & Lee, P.A., Jacksonville, for petitioner.
Joel L. Goldman of Goldman, Presser, Lewis & Nussbaum, Jacksonville, for respondents.
By petition for writ of habeas corpus, Reno presents the following query: May a trial court imprison a husband for contempt for failure to pay a third party on a joint debt of the husband and wife? The answer is no.
A salient provision set out in the final judgment entered December 6, 1976, dissolving the marriage of Reno and his wife is:
On June 2, 1977, in hearing various motions filed by the wife, 1 the trial court entered an "Order Allowing Husband's Withdrawal of Counsel and Imposition of Contempt Penalty" wherein, after finding that the Husband has had the past capacity to pay the obligations imposed upon him by the Final Judgment, and that he has wilfully failed to do so", ordered him to pay or otherwise satisfy the claim of C.I.T. Finance Company against the wife and the husband. A further provision of the order directed the husband to appear before the court at 9:00 a.m. on July 5, 1977, and present proof of satisfying the C.I.T. claim, and upon failure so to do that he would be sentenced to 60 days in the Duval County Jail. An "Order on Commitment for Contempt" was entered by the trial court on July 5, 1977, which found that the husband, although able to do so, wilfully failed and refused to make the payment to C.I.T. and directed that he be confined in the Duval County Jail for 60 days with the additional provision that the husband could purge himself of the contempt by paying C.I.T. and the commitment costs.
Squarely in point is the Supreme Court's opinion in State v. Mason, 4 So.2d 255 (Fla.1941). There, the trial court had, in a divorce decree, required the husband to pay a bank certain sums of money "in restitution to the plaintiff (wife) of sums of money dissipated from her estate during the existence of their marriage". Upon a hearing seeking the adjudication of the husband to be in contempt for failure to...
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Ball v. Ball, AR-230
...Schminkey v. Schminkey, 400 So.2d 121 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981); Chapman v. Lamm, 388 So.2d 1048 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1980); State ex rel. Reno v. Richardson, 348 So.2d 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); Corbin v. Etheridge, 296 So.2d 59 (Fla. 1st DCA Appellee contends, however, that she waived any claim for alimo......
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Schminkey v. Schminkey
...I, Section 11, Florida Constitution. Accord, State ex rel. Cahn v. Mason, 148 Fla. 263, 4 So.2d 255 (Fla.1941); State ex rel. Reno v. Richardson, 348 So.2d 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); Corbin v. Etheridge, 296 So.2d 59 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974); State ex rel. Gillham v. Phillips, 193 So.2d 26 (Fla.2d ......