Title: Gaston v. Pittman

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

224 So. 2d 326 (1969)
Angela Dorothy GASTON, Appellant,
v.
John PITTMAN, Appellee.
No. 38217.

Supreme Court of Florida.
May 28, 1969.
Rehearing Denied June 23, 1969.
W.H.F. Wiltshire, of Harrell, Caro, Middlebrooks & Wiltshire, Pensacola, for appellant.
W. Spencer Mitchem of Beggs, Lane, Daniel, Gaines & Davis, Pensacola, for appellee.
ADKINS, Justice.
This case is presented on Certificate as authorized by Fla. Stat., § 25.031, F.S.A., and Rule 4.61, Fla.App. Rules 32, F.S.A., from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 405 F.2d 869, in an appeal from a decision of the trial court granting defendant's motion for a summary final judgment in an action by a divorced woman against her former husband for a tort committed by him prior to their marriage.
The Court states that:
This Court considered Amendola v. Amendola (Fla. 1960), 118 So. 2d 13, on appeal from the Circuit Court. The Court determined that the appeal was improvidently taken and transferred the cause to the appropriate District Court of Appeal. Justice Roberts dissented on the jurisdictional question and filed an opinion discussing the merits of the case. In his opinion Justice Roberts states:
We adopt this reasoning of Justice Roberts.
In prohibiting actions by a wife against her husband, the reasons usually assigned by the courts to support the public policy argument are that such actions between spouses would disturb domestic tranquility; tend to cause marital discord and divorce; cause fictitious, collusive, and fraudulent claims; cause a rise in liability insurance rates; and promote trivial actions. It has also been said that a spouse has an adequate remedy for civil wrongs inflicted by the other spouse through the criminal and divorce courts. See the Law of Torts by Harper and James, Vol. 1, § 8.10; Laws of Torts by William L. Prosser (3rd Ed.), § 116; Pollock on Torts (15th Ed.), pp. 49-50; Annot. 43 A.L.R.2d 632; 41 C.J.S. Husband and Wife § 398; 43 Harv.Law Rev., Torts Between Persons in Domestic Relation by William E. McCurdy, p. 1030. All of these reasons fail in an action for an antenuptial tort by a divorced wife.
As the tort in the principal case was committed before coverture there could be no defense of legal identity. This cause of action against the tortfeasor remained as her separate property after marriage, but the right of action was abated by her marriage to the tortfeasor. See Webster v. Snyder, 103 Fla. 1131, 138 So. 755 (1932), where the court distinguished "cause of action" and "right of action." See also, 1 F.L.P., Abatement, Revival and Survival, § 2.
There are no considerations of public policy weighty enough to prohibit a divorced wife's suit against her former husband for an antenuptial tort. As reasoned by Justice Roberts in his opinion filed in Amendola, supra:
We adopt this reasoning of Justice Roberts.
In summary, we hold that the injured woman having become vested with a cause of action against the tortfeasor, the *329 subsequent marriage to the tortfeasor did not extinguish the "cause of action," but merely abated the woman's capacity to sue. This "right of action" was abated only during the existence of the marriage. Upon divorce the procedural bar was lifted. In other words, under Florida law a divorced woman can maintain an action against her former husband for a tort committed by him prior to their marriage.
This question should be answered in the affirmative.
ERVIN, C.J., ROBERTS and BOYD, JJ., concur.
DREW, J., dissents.