263 So. 2d 292 | Fla. Dist. Ct. App. | 1972
Mr. and Mrs. Cochran were divorced in Hardee County in 1968. The final judgment specified that the father could visit the children in their state of residence at any time and that he should have the right to have the children visit him for six weeks each summer. Support was fixed at $40 per week “so long as visitation rights . are complied with.”
The mother of the children failed to comply with the decree. The father properly laid the matter before the court and asked to be relieved of his support obligation until the mother complied with the court’s judgment. The court entered such an order.
This appeal grows out of the mother’s attempt to circumvent the Florida court’s order by initiating an action in Pennsylvania, her present residence, through the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, Fla.Stat. ch. 88 (1969), F.S.A.; 9C U.L.A. 1 et seq. The Circuit Judge who entered the order in the divorce proceeding absolving the father of his duty to support while the mother was in contempt dismissed this proceeding, and the mother appeals.
Mrs. Cochran is subject to the continuing jurisdiction of the Florida court, which was not the case with Mrs. Hill in Hill v. Hill, Fla.App.4th 1967, 204 So.2d 346, on which the appellant relies. Here the Circuit Court expressly reserved jurisdiction to insure that its judgment would be complied with. It was not. Mrs. Cochran is in contempt of a Florida court which has jurisdiction over her case. Her remedy is simple: obey the law. The wise Circuit Judge who heard this case dismissed this proceeding because it is a patent circumvention of proper proceeding by a litigant with unclean hands. Mrs. Cochran knew from the outset that failure to comply with the visitation provision might jeopardize her right to receive support payments. The authority of the trial judge to enter the order suspending payments during contempt is clear. See Warrick v. Hender, Fla.App.4th 1967, 198 So.2d 348 and cases there cited. Fla.Stat. § 88.281 (1969), F.S.A., makes it plain that an order entered under the Reciprocal Act “shall not supersede any previous order of support issued in a divorce action . . . ”.
Florida law certainly governs the determination of duty of support in this case. Fla.Stat. § 88.081, F.S.A.
Affirmed.
. “Duties of support applicable under this chapter are those imposed or imposable under the laws of any state where the obligor was present during the period for which support is sought. The obligor is presumed to have been present in the responding state during the period for which support is sought until otherwise shown.”
. See 9C U.L.A., Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, § 7, Commis