Case Title: Bencomo v. Bencomo

Citation: 200 So. 2d 171

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1967-05-31T00:00:00Z

Document:
200 So. 2d 171 (1967)
Carmela BENCOMO, a/k/a Carmen Bencomo, Appellant,
v.
William C. BENCOMO, Appellee.
No. 35678.

Supreme Court of Florida.
May 31, 1967.
*172 Horton & Schwartz, Miami, and Harold Ungerleider, Miami Beach, for appellant.
Pallot, Silver, Pallot, Stern & Proby, Miami, for appellee.
ROBERTS, Justice.
This case brings for review a decision of the trial court dismissing a cause of action by the appellant-plaintiff against the appellee-defendant for an alleged intentional tort committed during coverture of marriage between the parties, the suit being filed after the marriage had been dissolved by divorce. The plaintiff contends that she has such a right to maintain the suit under Sections 1, 4 and 12 of the Declaration of Rights, Constitution of Florida, F.S.A., and under Section 1 of Article XI of the Constitution of Florida, and also under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States. The trial court construed such constitutional provisions in its final judgment, and this court has jurisdiction to review on direct appeal under Section 4(2), Article V, Constitution of Florida.
We are thus confronted with the question of whether or not a former spouse can maintain an action in tort against the other spouse for a tort allegedly committed during marriage, where such marriage has been dissolved by divorce. The trial court held she could not and dismissed the suit. We agree.
This court has long been committed to the proposition that one spouse can not sue the other because, under the common law, they are one person. See Corren v. Corren, Fla. 1950, 47 So. 2d 774, in which this court said:
Continuing on Page 776:
The decision in the Corren case is buttressed by the general rule announced in 41 C.J.S. Husband and Wife § 396, which says:
In 27 Am.Jur., Husband and Wife, Section 589, it is also stated that:
*174 Also in 27 Am.Jur., Husband and Wife, Section 594, there appears the following language:
Also compare Amendola v. Amendola, Fla. App. 1960, 121 So. 2d 805; and see 43 A.L.R. 2d 632.
In reaching this decision we have not overlooked the case of Alexander v. Alexander, D.C., 140 F. Supp. 925. In that case the United States District Court in another state undertook to construe and apply the Florida law on this subject and reached a decision opposite to the rule announced in this state in the cases herein cited. We have no way of knowing why that court elected to depart from the rule previously announced in this state, but nevertheless we still adhere to our former decisions and reject the construction adopted by the South Carolina Federal court.
We have carefully measured the line of decisions on the question by this court against the constitutional guarantees invoked by the appellant and find no conflict. The trial judge was eminently correct in dismissing the bill, and the judgment here under review is
Affirmed.
THORNAL, C.J., and THOMAS, DREW, O'CONNELL and CALDWELL, JJ., concur.
ERVIN, J., dissents with Opinion.
ERVIN, Justice (dissenting):
I think our decisional law should no longer support with pristine force the common law prohibition against actions between former husbands and wives for intentional torts committed by one upon the other during coverture, due to subsequent modifying provisions of our Federal and State constitutions and state laws. See: F.S. Section 2.01, F.S.A., which provides in part that the "common law [shall] be not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and the acts of this state." Section 4 of the Declaration of Rights of the Florida Constitution provides the state courts shall be open "so that every person for any injury done him in his * * * person or reputation shall have remedy, by due course of law * * *" (Emphasis added) Section 1, Amend. XIV, United States Constitution, provides in part "* * * nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Aside from the language mechanics indicating a modification of the common law prohibition has occurred, the reasons stated in the decisional law of Florida supporting the common law rule have in large part now disappeared because of later overruling decisions interpreting individual rights guaranteed by organic law. In support of this proposition see Prosser on Torts, 3rd Ed. pp. 879, 883, as follows:
The following cases support the foregoing quotes from Prosser: Penton v. Penton (1931), 223 Ala. 282, 135 So. 481; Harris v. Harris (1924), 211 Ala. 222, 100 So. 333; Johnson v. Johnson (1917), 201 Ala. 41, 77 So. 335, 6 A.L.R. 1031; Bennett v. Bennett (1932), 224 Ala. 335, 140 So. 378; Katzenberg v. Katzenberg, 183 Ark. 626, 37 S.W.2d 696; Leach v. Leach (1957), 227 Ark. 599, 300 S.W.2d 15; Rains v. Rains (1935), 97 Colo. 19, 46 P.2d 740; Ginsberg v. Ginsberg, 126 Conn. 146, 9 A.2d 812; Brown v. Brown (1914), 88 Conn. 42, 89 A. 889, 52 L.R.A.,N.S., 185; Bushnell v. Bushnell (1925), 103 Conn. 583, 131 A. 432, 44 A.L.R. 785; Lorang v. Hays (1949), 69 Idaho 440, 209 P.2d 733; Brown v. Gosser (Ky. 1953), 262 S.W.2d 480, 43 A.L.R.2d 626; Combs v. Combs (Ky. 1953), 262 S.W.2d 821; Gilman v. Gilman (1915), 78 N.H. 4, 95 A. 657, L.R.A. 1916B, 907; Lumbermen's Mut. Cas. Co. v. Blake (1946), 94 N.H. 141, 47 A.2d 874; Priddle v. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co., 100 N.H. 73, 119 A.2d 97; Fitzmaurice v. Fitzmaurice, 62 N.D. 191, 242 N.W. 526; Damm v. Elyria Lodge No. 465 (1952), 158 Ohio St. 107, 107 N.E.2d 337; Courtney v. Courtney (1938), 184 Okla. 305, 87 P.2d 660; Fiedler v. Fiedler (1914), 42 Okla. 124, *176 140 P. 1022, 52 L.R.A.,N.S., 189; Parduere v. Parduere (1932), 167 S.C. 129, 166 S.E. 101; Oshiek v. Oshiek, 244 S.C. 249, 136 S.E.2d 303; Scotvold v. Scotvold (1941), 68 S.D. 53, 298 N.W. 266; Forbes v. Forbes (1938), 226 Wis. 477, 277 N.W. 112; Fontaine v. Fontaine (1931), 205 Wis. 570, 238 N.W. 410; Jaeger v. Jaeger (1952), 262 Wis. 14, 53 N.W.2d 740; Cramer v. Cramer, (1963), Alaska, 379 P.2d 95.
In Harper and James on Torts, Vol. I, 1956, Sec. 8.10 on pages 645 and 646, the authors make the following observation:
See also: Alexander v. Alexander (U.S.D.C. 1956), 140 F. Supp. 925; Gremillion v. Caffey (La. App.), 71 So. 2d 670; Amendola v. Amendola (Fla.App. 1960), 121 So. 2d 805, Steele v. Steele (D.D.C. 1946), 65 F. Supp. 329, and Apitz v. Dames, 205 Or. 252, 287 P.2d 585, Sanchez v. Olivarez, 94 N.J. Super. 61, 226 A.2d 752.
I think the decisional law of our State reflected in the majority opinion should yield to the extent that divorced husbands or wives may sue each other for unsettled, unsatisfied or unwaived intentional torts committed by one spouse upon the other during coverture. There is some justification for retaining the common law barrier so long as the marriage relation exists, but the rationale of modern constitutional interpretations of individual rights would appear to override reasons for retaining the barrier after the marriage relation ceases. The reason the common law prohibition apparently should not be relaxed to permit tort actions during coverture between spouses is that while the marriage relation exists the presumption prevails that in conformity with marriage vows the spouse guilty of the tort will voluntarily make amends and be forgiven by the aggrieved spouse; but if not, then presumably the spouse aggrieved by the tort may obtain settlement or satisfaction from the offending spouse through divorce proceedings. Once, however, the marriage relation is severed by divorce and there was not or could not be a settlement or adjudication in the divorce proceedings of the claim of the aggrieved spouse for the intentional tort of the offending spouse, a tort action should be allowed the ex-spouse to recover damages for the intentional tort.