Larry Roger BARNETT, Appellant,
v.
Susan M. BARNETT, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
Andrew J. Rodnite, Jr. and Joseph R. Park of Park, Bugg, Rodnite, Ossian and Zdravko, P.A., Clearwater, for Appellant.
H. Jo Butterworth, Clearwater, for Appellee.
THREADGILL, Judge.
The appellant, Larry Roger Barnett, the former husband herein, challenges a final order denying his Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540 motion to set aside a Florida final judgment of marital dissolution entered in November 1996. He contends the foregoing judgment should have been set aside as void, in light of a Tennessee final judgment of marital dissolutioninvolving these same parties in this same marriagepreviously entered in 1995. We agree and reverse on that point only. We, however, affirm without discussion the order denying the appellant's motion to set aside the November 1996 dissolution judgment on the basis of the former wife's purported fraud, as there is no merit to that claim.
In November 1996, the trial court was without subject matter jurisdiction to enter a final judgment of marital dissolution in this case, because a Tennessee judgment entered in December 1995 had since dissolved the marriage of the parties herein and had already equitably divided their marital property. See Groover v. Groover,
Accordingly, this cause is reversed and remanded to the trial court with directions to enter an appropriate order vacating the 1996 Florida judgment of marital dissolution as void. Orders relating to the custodial responsibility of the parties' minor children are otherwise affirmed. Barnett v. Barnett,
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with directions.
PATTERSON, C.J., and GREEN, J., Concur.
