Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Alimony

What remedies are available to a party who is owed past-due alimony in Florida? One common remedy is contempt. If a party is held in contempt of court for failure to pay court-ordered alimony, that party can be made to pay attorney’s fees and even incarcerated. Contempt of an alimony order was an issue in the case Finch v. Cribbs, 1D18-3855 (Fla. 1st DCA June 22, 2021).

The parties were divorced in 2014, and their final judgment required the former husband to pay $2,600 per month in permanent alimony as well as over $1,000 per month to repay a personal loan to the former wife. Two years later, the former wife moved to hold the former husband in contempt, alleging he was not paying the alimony nor the loan. The parties entered a consent judgment at that time in which the former husband agreed to pay a lump sum plus a higher monthly amount to become current on his obligations. Still, a year later, the former wife had to move for contempt again, citing the former husband’s failure to pay as promised. She sought financial discovery from him. Because he repeatedly failed to provide his financial disclosure, he was held in contempt and sanctioned by the court multiple times.

At the final hearing, the trial court considered evidence that the former husband owned a business and routinely transferred large sums of cash from his business accounts to his personal accounts totaling about $400,000. Although the former husband testified his business was doing poorly and on the verge of bankruptcy, there was evidence the former husband used business credit to find personal trips and expenses. He also carried cash on him and could not explain the origins of the cash or purpose. The trial court ultimately found the former husband to in contempt, found he owed over $69,000 in alimony, ordered him to pay over $29,000 in attorney’s fees as a sanction, and ordered that he pay $14,500 for discovery violations (the court previously ordered he would pay $500 per day, up to thirty days, for each day he did not provide his discovery). The court ordered him to pay the attorney’s fees and the contempt sanction within 60 days or face jail time, and found he had the ability to pay. The former husband appealed.

First, addressing the former husband argument that there was insufficient evidence to support the contempt order, the appellate court held “[A] trial court is not cabined by what it suspects is the under-reported income of a self-employed spouse, especially when that spouse has failed to disclose the pertinent financial information to back up his claim. Where the self-employed spouse’s own misconduct is responsible for the inability of the trial court to accurately determine his income, he cannot then be heard to complain about the trial court’s reliance on evidence of unexplained withdrawals from his business and indicators of his comfortable lifestyle that contradict his claimed inability to pay. The trial court has the discretion to consider the self-employed spouse’s available business assets in these circumstances when making its present-ability-to-pay determination.”

Turning to the former husband argument that it was inappropriate for the trial court to order cumulative discovery sanctions, the appellate court held “The court here reviewed the case history, Robert’s two agreed upon orders to pay Terri certain amounts, his continuing failures to pay or provide ordered discovery, his finances, his non-credible testimony about his financial picture, and his movement of funds to avoid creditors. Given this, the court’s cumulative sanctions are not unreasonable.”

Last, addressing the former husband’s argument that it was error for the trial court to apply amounts he previously paid to the loan balance instead of his alimony arrears, the court disagreed, holding “Absent any statute or rule that requires that a trial court apply payments to alimony arrearages before applying them to a personal loan arrearage, we cannot say the trial court abused its discretion.”

If you are involved in a case concerning past-due alimony, schedule a consultation with a Miami divorce lawyer to understand the best way to proceed.