Case Title: James v. James

Citation: 64 So. 2d 534

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1953-04-14T00:00:00Z

Document:
64 So. 2d 534 (1953)
JAMES
v.
JAMES.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division A.
April 14, 1953.
Hickey, Christie & Christie, Miami, for appellant.
David Drucker, Miami, for appellee.
MATHEWS, Justice.
This is an appeal from an order of the Chancellor modifying the provisions of a final decree with reference to the support of a minor child and the defining of the right of visitation granted in the final decree of divorce.
In the divorce proceedings which resulted in a final decree in April, 1950, there was a bill of complaint filed by the husband, an answer and cross-bill filed by the wife, and a reply to the cross-bill by the husband. At the time of the proceedings in the divorce suit, it appears that the husband was a permanent resident of Dade County and the wife was residing in Brooklyn, New York. There was a minor child, who at that time was three years of age, residing in New York with the mother. The mother submitted herself to the jurisdiction of the Court and prayed for the custody of the minor child and for support money to be paid to her for the minor child. In the final decree of divorce, the Chancellor, among other things, ordered, adjudged and decreed:
On January 29, 1952, petition for modification of the final decree was filed together with a notice of hearing. A hearing was had before the Chancellor in which the wife and the husband testified. The testimony was not transcribed but according to the record, the facts are undisputed.
It appears that at that time the child was five and one-half years of age and was residing at a boarding house in Brooklyn, New York. The defendant wife lived in New York but came to Miami Beach each winter where she works for about four *535 months each year. While working in Miami Beach, she leaves the child with her sister in New York. Since the granting of the decree of divorce, the husband has remarried, owns a modest home in Miami and such home is a proper environment for the child. When the decree of divorce was granted, the husband had no home in which to place the child. In the order appealed from the Chancellor stated:
It is insisted by the appellant that the case of Dorman v. Friendly, 146 Fla. 732, 1 So. 2d 734, is controlling in this case, and because the child is domiciled in the State of New York the Chancellor was without jurisdiction to make the order complained of. The facts in Dorman v. Friendly, supra, are entirely different from the facts in this case. In that case, at the time of the institution of the suit and the date of the entry of the decree, the plaintiff was domiciled with her children in Florida and the defendant was domiciled in the State of New York. After the entry of the final decree, the plaintiff moved to the State of Virginia and established a domicile there for herself and children, and had ever since been domiciled in Virginia. The defendant had moved his place of residence to Salt Lake City, Utah. The primary question involved and discussed in that case, Dorman v. Friendly, supra, was a change in the custody of minor children.
In the case at bar the Chancellor made no order with reference to the custody of the minor child but it was limited to a proper clarification of the right of visitation and the making of such right effective in view of the changed conditions of the parties. In the original decree of divorce the Chancellor reserved to the husband "the right of reasonable visitation" and retained "jurisdiction to modify this decree as to the support of the said child." The husband is required by the order modifying the decree to pay the expenses of the child while it is visiting him and relieved from the duty of paying to the wife any sum for the support and maintenance of the child while the same is visiting with the father. In order to make his decree effective and as a method of enforcing the same, the order of modification provided that if the mother, (who was before the Chancellor) having custody of the child by reason of the final decree, refuses unreasonably to comply with the visitation as prescribed, the husband would be excused from the further support payments until the further order of the Court.
*536 In this case, at the time of the filing of the suit and the entry of the original final decree, the child was in New York and the mother submitted herself to the jurisdiction of the Court in Dade County, Florida. She appeared in the suit. She prayed that the Court award her the custody of the child and award to her support money for the child. The Court granted her prayer by awarding the custody of the child to her "subject to the right of reasonable visitation" by the father. The original award for support and maintenance for the minor child was made to the mother with a retention of jurisdiction by the Court to modify the decree as to the support of the child. At the time of the order complained about, the mother and father were before the Court and each of them testified before the Chancellor. The Court had jurisdiction of the father and the mother. Under court order the mother had custody of the child. The actual person of the child was in New York but the mother, over whom the Court had jurisdiction, being personally present in Court in Dade County, the child was constructively present, if such presence was necessary to give the Court jurisdiction to make the order complained of. A legal guardian of a child or a person having the custody of a child under a court order, and who is personally present before a Court having jurisdiction of the person as the legal custodian or guardian of a child, is in no position to complain that the Court is without jurisdiction to make any orders or give any directions to such custodian or guardian with reference to the child or for the support and maintenance of the child.
In the article on Infants in 27 Am.Jur. 822, 823, Sec. 101, we find the following:
We find no error in the order complained of. Should this opinion be in conflict with any portion of the opinion in Dorman v. Friendly, supra, the same is overruled and receded from to the extent of such conflict.
Affirmed.
ROBERTS, C.J., and TERRELL and DREW, JJ., concur.