Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Divorce
If a Florida marital settlement agreement obligates a spouse to hold funds in trust for the parties’ child, does the child have a right to enforce the agreement? This was an issue in the case Clark v. Clark, 3D24-0046 (Fla. 3d DCA January 15, 2025).
When the parties divorced, the former husband agreed to waive entitlement to equitable distribution and to place all funds to which he was entitled (including those from the sale of the marital residence) in trust for the benefit of his then-minor child. The former husband failed to do so, and the now-adult child filed a motion to intervene in the case and to have the court impose a constructive trust on the sale proceeds of the marital home for the benefit of the child. The trial court granted the motion to intervene and to impose the trust, and the former husband appealed arguing the court misconstrued the agreement.
The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s ruling, holding “Because there is no legal prohibition on this type of arrangement and the former husband failed to fulfill his obligation to establish and fund the trust, imposing a constructive trust over fifty percent of the marital residence for the son’s benefit was proper under guiding authority. See Zanakis v. Zanakis, 629 So. 2d 181, 183 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993) (‘[Appellant] relied on her son . . . to hold title to this property for the benefit of [his brother] after [appellant]’s death. [The son], while acknowledging that it was never intended he should own the property, abused the confidence placed in him by [appellant] by conveying it to his live-in girlfriend, [the brother]’s widow, whom he then married, thereby unjustly enriching himself. Although the trial court may have mislabeled the trust as a resulting trust instead of a constructive trust, he correctly imposed a trust.’)”
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