Case Name: Kathryn V. REYNOLDS, Appellant, v. William A. REYNOLDS, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1959-12-10
Citations: 117 So. 2d 16
Docket Number: No. B-10
Parties: Kathryn V. REYNOLDS, Appellant, v. William A. REYNOLDS, Appellee.
Judges: CARROLL, DONALD, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 117
Pages: 16–25

Head Matter:
Kathryn V. REYNOLDS, Appellant, v. William A. REYNOLDS, Appellee.
No. B-10.
District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.
Dec. 10, 1959.
Rehearing Denied Jan. 6, 1960.
Powell & Barrow, Crestview, for appellant.
Ferrin C. Campbell, Crestview, for ap-pellee.

Opinion:
STURGIS, Judge.
The appellant wife, defendant below in an action for divorce on the ground of desertion, seeks reversal of a final decree which denied her counterclaim for separate maintenance, granted divorce to the husband, and awarded alimony to the wife in monthly installments for a limited period of time.
The parties were married in March of 1927 at Bel Air, Maryland. In 1942, while living at Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (where the wife continues to reside), the husband entered military service. In 1943 the wife instituted suit for divorce while her husband was engaged overseas in that occupation, but dropped the action when he returned stateside. They continued to cohabit as husband and wife until sometime in 1952, when the conjugal relations ceased. However, the husband thereafter sporadically occupied the same house as the wife until January 1956, when he was transferred to Fort Rucker, Alabama. They have not since resided together or cohabited.
On January 25, 1957, the husband brought a suit for divorce in Dale County, Alabama, charging voluntary abandonment under Title 34, Section 20, Code of Alabama, and on June 4, 1957, the Alabama court entered a decree as follows:
"This cause coming on to be heard is submitted on oral testimony taken before the Court, and the Court having understood and considered said testimony, it is, hereby,
"Ordered, adjudged and decreed that the relief prayed for in the bill of complaint be, and is hereby denied."
We here take note that the Supreme Court of Alabama has construed the Alabama ground of "voluntary abandonment" as importing willful, obstinate and continuous desertion for a period of one year, which parallels the holding of the Supreme Court of Florida in respect to the essential elements for divorce in this state on the ground of desertion under Section 65.04(7), Florida Statutes, F.S.A. See Watkins v. Kidd, 261 Ala. 463, 75 So.2d 87, and Darden v. Darden, 246 Ala. 525, 21 So.2d 549, and compare Mitchell v. Mitchell, 91 Fla. 427, 107 So. 630, and Powell v. Powell, 77 Fla. 181, 81 So. 105.
Following the Alabama decree the husband established his residence in Florida, where on March 12, 1958, he filed the suit presently on review. The complaint herein charged the wife with desertion "for a period in excess of twelve (12) months prior to the filing of this cause of action." Her answer generally denied that charge and — as an affirmative defense — alleged that the cause was res judicata by virtue of the Alabama decree. She also counterclaimed for separate maintenance, charging plaintiff with extreme cruelty and habitual intemperance.
On August 7, 1958 — five months after this suit was filed — the parties stipulated that the plaintiff should be allowed to amend his complaint so as to charge that the desertion existed for a period of twelve months prior to August 1, 1958, rather than twelve months prior to the filing of the action as initially alleged. The complaint was amended accordingly. We pause to observe that this amendment could serve no useful purpose because power to grant divorce on the ground of desertion is lacking unless it is established that the desertion was willful, obstinate and continuous for a period of one year immediately prior to the commencement of the suit. However, the appellant has not demonstrated that any period of time subsequent to the filing of this suit was taken into account in computing the total period of the alleged desertion, and absent such showing we indulge the presumption that the chancellor correctly applied the law to the facts. We are also cognizant of the settled usage of the courts whereby the parties to a marriage are required to live separately pending divorce proceedings. Their voluntary separation during that period does not constitute willful desertion in contemplation of law. Palmer v. Palmer, 36 Fla. 385, 18 So. 720.
In rebuttal to the husband's proofs in the case on appeal, the wife filed in evidence certified copies of the bill of complaint and of the above quoted decree in the Alabama suit. The critical allegation of the complaint in the Alabama suit was that the wife "voluntarily and of her own free will and accord" abandoned the bed and board of the appellant for a period of more than twelve months immediately prior to the filing of that action. The mentioned documents constitute the sum of the proofs offered in the Florida suit by the wife in support of the defense of res judi-cata; and it also represents the total of the proofs upon which any theory of defense by way of judgment by estoppel could be found to exist.
The final decree in the Florida action contains findings to the effect that the trial court had jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties to the suit and that equities were with the plaintiff husband. It thereupon granted divorce to the husband, but required him to pay alimony to the wife in fixed amounts during the months of September 1958 to February 1959, inclusive, and also to pay a fixed sum for the services of her attorney. The wife appealed.
The assignments of error challenge (1) the jurisdiction of the trial court under Section 65.02, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which specifies the residence requirements of the complaining party, to entertain the action, (2) the sufficiency of the evidence to support the decree of divorce, and (3) the adequacy of the alimony awarded.
We see no need to detail the evidence concerning the husband's residence in this state. Suffice it to say that there is competent evidence in support of the trial court's finding that it had jurisdiction over the subject matter of the cause and the persons of the parties. Unlike Campbell v. Campbell, Fla.1952, 57 So.2d 34, in which our Supreme Court held that the proofs indicated constructive residence only, the husband's proofs in this case clearly demonstrate that he maintained actual residence in Florida for the six-months period immediately prior to commencement of suit, thus satisfying Section 65.02, Florida Statutes, F.S.A. Ap pellant's first point, therefore, is without merit.
In order for the defense of res judicata to prevail, the final judgment or decree relied upon must reflect within its four corners matters from which it can be determined that the second suit is (1) upon the same cause of action, (2) between the same parties as the first, and (3) that the final judgment in the first suit upon the merits is conclusive in the second suit as to every question that was presented or might have been presented and determined in the first suit. These elements have a special significance when sought to be applied in successive suits for divorce on the ground of desertion. As said in Prall v. Prall, 1909, 58 Fla. 496, 50 So. 867, 871, 26 L.R.A..N.S., 577:
"While the welfare of society demands exemption from unnecessary and vexatious divorce litigation, the principles of res adjudicate, should not be so applied as to prevent one determination of every distinct cause of action under the statutes authorizing divorces for specific and separate species of misconduct. See Lea v. Lea, 99 Mass. 493, 96 Am.Dec. 772."
It will be noted that the within quoted Alabama decree is silent as to the element or elements of proof the lack of which resulted in denial of the divorce sought in that forum. There is nothing elsewhere in the record on this appeal from which it can be determined whether the Alabama court denied relief because of the plaintiff husband's failure to establish "voluntary abandonment" (as the Code of Alabama designates the ground for divorce there involved) on the part of the wife, in the sense that she willfully and obstinately quit the bed and board of her husband, as required by the laws of that state as well as of Florida, or that the Alabama divorce was denied because of the husband's failure to establish that such "voluntary abandonment" was continuous for the statutory period of one year immediately prior to the commencement of the Alabama suit, as also required by the laws of that state. In fact, the factual basis for denial of relief in the Alabama proceeding is not ascertainable from the record on this appeal.
It is apparent in the physical nature of things that where the law requires that the act of desertion must be continuous for a specified period of time immediately prior to the commencement of the action, successive suits for divorce on the ground of desertion necessarily involve separate and distinct factual situations in respect to that time element.
It may be that relief was denied to,the husband in the Alabama suit solely because the proofs in that action showed something less than the required one year of willful and obstinate "voluntary abandonment". If such was not the case, it was the burden of the defendant wife, in support of her affirmative defenses in the Florida action, to establish the contrary by proofs removing the obscurity with which the trial court was faced as a result of the paucity of her proofs. Absent such proof, it does not necessarly follow that a full year must elapse after entry of the Alabama decree before a suit on the ground of desertion could be maintained by the plaintiff in this state.
In computing the period of willful, obstinate, and continued desertion for one year as required by the statute, the following rule announced by our Supreme Court in Betts v. Betts, Fla., 63 So.2d 302, 304, appears applicable:
"In considering this question, we are at once confronted with the necessity of determining whether such desertion was 'willful and obstinate' for the statutory period, in the light of the rule that, ordinarily, the running of the statute is stopped while divorce proceedings are pending between the parties. Palmer v. Palmer, 36 Fla. 385, 18 So. 720, 723. It appears that at no time since December 26, 1948, has Aere been a continuous period of one year which has been uninterrupted by divorce litigation between the parties. But this is unimportant if, in fact, the periods uninterrupted by bona fide litigation, when added togeAer, are as much as one year. Woodward v. Woodward, 122 Fla. 300, 165 So. 46."
Applying this rule in the present appeal, we conclude Aat the interruption by the Alabama suit of the one-year period preceding the filing of the Florida suit was immaterial if, prior to the filing of the Alabama suit, there was sufficient time of •desertion which would, if added to the period of desertion between the Alabama decree and the filing of the Florida suit, add up to one year or more. In other words, if such desertion existed during Ae nine months between June 4, 1957, when the Alabama decree was entered, and March 12, 1958, when the Florida suit was filed, and if such desertion existed during the three months before January 25, 1957, when the Alabama suit was filed, the statutory requirement in Florida of willful, obstinate and continued desertion for one year would be satisfied. The finding of such desertion is wholly consistent with Ae Alabama decree, so far as Ae record before us is concerned, for the Alabama court might well have found that there was desertion during the three months preceding the filing of that suit on January 25, 1957, but not desertion for a full year as required in Alabama.
The case of Field v. Field, Fla.1953, 68 So.2d 376, 378, closely approaches Ae problem on this appeal. There the trial court dismissed the complaint because the evidence did not preponderate to Ae effect that the desertion was continuous for a period of one year prior to the filing of the complaint,, but the dismissal was "without prejudice to his [plaintiff's] right to institute such further action as he deems necessary." The Florida Supreme Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Drew, held that the question of divorce on the ground of desertion could be re-litigated in a subsequent suit between the parties. We think that implicit in that holding is the proposition that in such subsequent suit it is competent to compute, as part of the period of desertion, the time elapsing between the date of the decree in the former suit and the date Ae subsequent suit is filed. It seems apparent, therefore, that the Florida Supreme Court recognizes, as we do, that the last one of successive suits for divorce on the ground of desertion necessarily involves a factual situation, insofar as the time element is concerned, different from that involved in the former proceeding. The situation in the Field case, as well as in the case on review, should not be confused with that which exists where ' an action is prematurely brought, for under the latter type of case there is no disposition on the merits and no. reason why the action should not be entertained as soon as the premature feature is removed. For Ae reasons stated we hold that the evidence presented by the appellant wife on the defense of res judicata is insufficient to establish Ae same, which accords with the finding of Ae chancellor implicit in the decree on appeal.
While judgment by estoppel was not pleaded as a defense in this cause, we deem it appropriate to point out that full faith and credit need not be given to a final decree of a sister state when estoppel by judgment is Ae appropriate test unless the precise facts offered in the pending suit were heard and determined in the former suit adjudicated in the foreign jurisdiction; and the burden rests on the party pleading it to establish such facts. Bagwell v. Bagwell, 153 Fla. 471, 14 So. 2d 841. For a comprehensive discussion of the distinctions between the defenses of res judicata and estoppel by judgment see Gordon v. Gordon, Fla.1952, 59 So.2d 40, certiorari denied 344 U.S. 878, 73 S.Ct. 165, 97 L.Ed. 680.
Having determined that Ae wife's proofs are inadequate to establish her affirmative defense, it .follows that Ae validity of the decree of divorce depends on whether there is competent evidence to sustain the charge of desertion. Admittedly, in order to so find it was necessary for the trial court to take into account and allow the plaintiff husband the benefit of the period of desertion, if any, transpiring prior to the date of the commencement of the Alabama suit. This is so because less than one year elapsed between the date of the decree in that suit and the date this suit was filed. Conceding his clear authority to do so under the rule announced in Woodward v. Woodward, 122 Fla. 300, 165 So. 46, and followed in Betts v. Betts, supra, and Gordon v. Gordon, supra, and applying the rule to the facts in the case on appeal, which we deem it unnecessary to detail, we find that there was ample competent testimony from which the chancellor might have concluded, as he did, that the plaintiff husband's charge of desertion was duly established. The chancellor's conclusions as trier of disputed facts will not be disturbed in the absence of a clear showing of abuse, and such does not appear. Therefore, appellant's second ground for reversal is not sustained.
On the third point for decision, it is within the sound judicial discretion of the trial court to grant or withhold alimony. Sanchez v. Sanchez, 1885, 21 Fla. 346. Since the equities of this cause were found to be with the husband, the chancellor would have been warranted in denying alimony altogether.
Affirmed.
CARROLL, DONALD, J., concurs.
WIGGINTON, Chief Judge, dissents.