BRIAN CALVARESE v. JOANNE KENNEDY CALVARESE

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: March 3, 2021
• Docket: 20-1662
• Status: Published

Opinion

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT

BRIAN CALVARESE, Appellant,

v.

JOANNE KENNEDY CALVARESE, Appellee.

No. 4D20-1662

[March 3, 2021]

Appeal of a nonfinal order from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Michael Davis, Judge; L.T. Case No. FMCE 19-002913 (38/93).

Brian C. Calvarese, Lighthouse Point, pro se.

Terrence P. O’Connor of Morgan, Carratt & O’Connor, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The husband appeals a nonfinal order granting the wife’s motion for interim partial equitable distribution and the husband’s motion for interim partial equitable distribution of property. In the order, the court ordered the distribution of two individual retirement accounts held by the husband to be divided equally between the parties after taxes and penalties were paid: one, a traditional IRA approximated at $185,000 in value, and another, a Roth IRA, approximated at $130,000 in value. We reverse the distribution of the traditional IRA, because neither party requested its distribution, and there was no good cause to support it. To obtain an interim equitable distribution of marital property, a party must show good cause. See § 61.075(5), Fla. Stat. (2020). We have said that “extraordinary circumstances” are necessary to constitute good cause. See Defanti v. Russell, 126 So. 3d 377, 378 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013). No such extraordinary circumstances were presented in this case to justify the liquidation of both IRAs before the final hearing. Therefore, we reverse the order authorizing the distribution of the traditional IRA. We affirm as to all other issues.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part. WARNER, GERBER and CONNER, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.