Pyne v. Black

650 So. 2d 1073, 1995 WL 63070
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 17, 1995
Docket93-2261
StatusPublished

This text of 650 So. 2d 1073 (Pyne v. Black) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pyne v. Black, 650 So. 2d 1073, 1995 WL 63070 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

650 So.2d 1073 (1995)

Emily Black PYNE, f/k/a Emily Winkle Black, Former Wife, Appellant,
v.
James L. BLACK, Former Husband, Appellee.

No. 93-2261.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

February 17, 1995.

*1074 Zelda J. Hawk of Law Office of Zelda J. Hawk, Gainesville, for appellant.

Robert L. Appleget, Jr. of Appleget, Lizarralde & Jerry, Ocala, for appellee.

GOSHORN, Judge.

Emily Black Pyne appeals after the trial court denied her motion for contempt based upon the former husband's failure to pay child support. Her former husband, James L. Black, ceased paying any child support for the parties' two daughters after February 6, 1981, when the younger girl was 12 years old and the older girl was 16 years old. Black's child support obligations ran through the time the girls turned 21 years of age, pursuant to the parties' 1972 dissolution decree, and thus was a "limbo" judgment[1] to the extent it encompassed the child support payments which accrued after the girls turned 18. This motion was brought 12 years after Black ceased paying child support and 4 years after the younger girl reached 21 years of age.

The trial court made its ruling after conducting an evidentiary hearing and considering the depositions of the parties. Judge McNeal's well reasoned opinion, which is set out in its entirety, is fully supported by the record. Judge McNeal wrote:

ORDER DENYING FORMER WIFE'S MOTION FOR CONTEMPT
Upon consideration of the former wife's Motion for Contempt and the evidence presented by the parties, the court finds that the former wife's attempt to collect child support twelve years after the former husband stopped paying and four years after the youngest child attained the age of 21 is barred by equitable estoppel and laches and that the former wife does not have standing to collect post-majority child support.
In 1980 the former husband returned permanently to Marion County and attempted to establish normal visitation with his children. The former wife rebuffed the former husband's request to establish frequent and continuing contact with the children by denying him visitation at Thanksgiving and at Christmas in 1980.
This was the first time the parties experienced any problems with visitation. Before then the former husband contacted the former wife when he was able to visit and she made the children available. This flexible arrangement was necessary because the former husband worked all over the world for extended periods of time and it was impossible for him to exercise normal visitation. The former wife was comfortable with this arrangement and did not want to increase this infrequent contact. She had remarried. She had a new baby and she was afraid more frequent visitation would disrupt the new family's routine.
The former husband retained an attorney in January, 1981 and requested a specific visitation schedule. The former wife hired an attorney and opposed the former husband's request without offering any *1075 hope for negotiation. After the response from his former wife's attorney, the former husband stopped paying support. The former wife consulted her attorney who "understood ... the situation." He advised her that under the circumstances she should not bring her former husband to court if she could get along without the support. Based on his advice she made an informed and voluntary decision to forgo her right to child support because the former husband would have insisted on his right to visitation with the children. Neither party asserted their rights in court, each relying on the other's unspoken agreement to not litigate these issues.
The former husband never visited with his children again. In the years that followed her decision, the former wife did not make even the slightest effort to encourage contact between the children and their father. Her refusal to foster and encourage a relationship between the children and their father is graphically illustrated by the children's Christmas gifts from their father in 1981 which have remained in her attic for almost twelve years, unopened.
In 1981 the law allowed a noncustodial parent to withhold support when the custodial parent failed or refused to allow visitation. See, e.g., Warrick v. Hender, 198 So.2d 348 (Fla. 1967) (proper to deny contempt for nonpayment of support where second husband performed the role of father for the step-children and although the first husband was granted reasonable visitation in the divorce decree, contact between him and the children was virtually nonexistent); Craig v. Craig [157 Fla. 710], 26 So.2d 881 (Fla. 1946) (refusal to permit visitation is sufficient legal defense to action to enforce support); Phillips v. Adams, 339 So.2d 665 (Fla. 4th DCA 1976) (court erred in not allowing father to present evidence that mother denied him visitation in response to an order to show cause for nonpayment of support); Denton v. Denton, 147 So.2d 545 (Fla. 2d DCA 1962) (requiring father to pay child support arrearage for time when mother failed to allow visitation was error). Withholding support was an acceptable method of enforcing visitation, but there was not a corresponding rule that allowed a custodial parent to withhold visitation when child support was not paid. Howard v. Howard, 143 So.2d 502 (Fla. 3d DCA 1962). The law did not change until 1986 when the legislature enacted § 61.13(4)(b). Effective October 1, 1986 a noncustodial parent could no longer withhold support when a custodial parent refused to allow visitation.
Ordinarily parents may not contract away the rights of their children to support or waive their children's right to support by acquiescence. Lee v. Lee, 157 Fla. 439, 26 So.2d 177 (1946); Robinson v. DHRS, 473 So.2d 228 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985). This rule makes sense where minor children can use the support or where the custodial parent has expended funds above that parent's legal obligation to provide support, but in this case the youngest child is 25 years old and there is not any evidence that the former wife expended any funds above her obligation to pay support. Also, the children did not endure any hardship and did not have to rely on public assistance. See Gibson v. Bennett, 561 So.2d 565 (Fla. 1990) (discussion of reasons for enforcing support after emancipation). Even though waiver and emancipation are not legal defenses, the doctrines of equitable estoppel and laches prevent the former wife from enforcing the child support under the circumstances of this case.
In order to establish the defense of laches the former husband must prove the four elements set forth in Van Meter v. Kelsey, 91 So.2d 327 (Fla. 1956). The first three elements concern the wife's delay in asserting her right to support in court. Since 1981, the former wife has known how to contact the former husband. He has lived at the same address in Marion county with the same listed telephone number. She has not offered a reasonable explanation for her delay in bringing this action to collect support.
However, unreasonable delay is insufficient by itself to prove laches. Cartee v. Carswell, 425 So.2d 204 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983). The significant question is whether the former husband suffered legal prejudice *1076 from her delay.

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Bluebook (online)
650 So. 2d 1073, 1995 WL 63070, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pyne-v-black-fladistctapp-1995.