Waite v. Milo-Waite

• Decision Date: 05 April 2023
• Docket Number: 4D22-423
• Parties: VICTOR H. WAITE, Appellant, v. JACLEN A. MILO-WAITE,
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

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VICTOR H. WAITE, Appellant,
v.
JACLEN A. MILO-WAITE,

No. 4D22-423

Florida Court of Appeals, Fourth District

April 5, 2023

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Renatha Francis, Judge; L.T. Case No. 502021DR003548.

Matthew S. Nugent and Adam M. Zborowski of The Law Offices of Nugent Zborowski, North Palm Beach, for appellant.

Jack B. Pugh of Pugh and Associates, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee.

FORST, J.

Appellant Victor H. Waite ("Former Husband") challenges several calculations, findings, and conclusions with respect to the trial court's final judgment of dissolution of marriage ("the final judgment"). We agree with Former Husband that the trial court erred in making several findings in conflict with the parties' pretrial stipulations and partial marital settlement agreement, and further erred in holding that a $16,620.47 payment received by Former Husband during the parties' separation was "willfully concealed or undervalued." We thus reverse and remand for the trial court to recalculate the amount of alimony and child support awarded to Appellee Jaclen A. Milo-Waite ("Former Wife") and make additional modifications to the final judgment as set forth below.

Background

After twelve years of marriage to Former Wife, Former Husband filed a "Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with Minor Children." Former Wife filed an answer and a counterpetition, seeking equitable distribution, alimony, shared parental responsibility, majority timesharing, and child support.

Shortly thereafter, the parties filed a mutually agreed upon parenting plan (the "Parental Plan") that provided, in part, that "[t]he parties shall share the

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costs of uncovered medical expenses . . . costs of school field trips . . . [and] costs of school supplies, including uniforms, pro rata." They also entered into a partial marital settlement agreement ("PMSA"), which stated "the [p]arties intend this Agreement to be a final and complete settlement of their property rights and obligations to one another, including their rights and obligations concerning equitable division of property." The PMSA declared that alimony and child support determinations would "be addressed by a separate agreement or Final Judgment at a later time."

The PMSA further provided several clauses on the parties' disclosure of assets. It explained that each party was satisfied with the other party's disclosure regarding their income, assets, liabilities, and expenses, and that, "[t]o the extent, if any, the [p]arties are unaware of the full nature and extent of the income, assets, liabilities and expenses of the other, they waive their right to full disclosure thereof and release their respective counsel from the duty of making full and further inquiry." However, "[i]n the event that any marital property has been willfully concealed or undervalued by one of the [p]arties, the [p]arty concealing the property or undervaluing the property shall pay to the other [p]arty, a sum equal to fifty percent (50%) of the full value of the property as of the date of th[e] Agreement."

The parties next exchanged financial affidavits and, in reliance on those affidavits, a joint pretrial statement. The joint pretrial statement noted only one significant dispute, which related to Former Wife's self-employment income.

Nonetheless, at the trial to determine the amounts of child support and alimony (if any) to be awarded to Former Wife, Former Wife disputed Former Husband's income. Specifically, she alleged that Former Husband, an attorney, had received a payment of $16,620.47 in attorney's fees from a personal injury case; this payment had not been disclosed in Former Husband's financial affidavits; and thus, Former Wife was entitled to one-half of the payment as "willfully concealed" marital...