Case ID: so2d_639/html/0207-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. DAUKSCH, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ellis Franklin FORT, Jr., Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, on Behalf of Eileen M. Emmers, Appellee.
    No. 93-2874.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
    July 22, 1994.
    Katherine M. Walton, Gainesville, for appellant.
    Douglas Bowdoin of Smith, Mackinnon, Harris, Greeley, Bowdoin & Edwards, P.A., Orlando, for appellee.
   PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

GOSHORN and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.

DAUKSCH, J., dissents, with opinion.

DAUKSCH, Judge,

dissenting.

This is an appeal from an award of attorneys’ fees in a post-judgment marital dissolution case. At the time the order was entered the appellees, H.R.S. and Emmers, were engaged in some legal juggling to determine who would be seeking to enforce alleged child support rights of Emmers. Without citing any statutory authority for its order, but citing “extensive, expensive, and needless litigation instigated or caused by” appellant, the court assessed a large amount of fees against appellant for “additional work caused by Former Husband’s unnecessary litigious conduct.”

This order was not founded upon any proper statutory authority, was awarded at a time when it was yet to be judicially determined who would be the proper party plaintiff, and thus should be quashed.