Case Name: KAUFMAN v. KAUFMAN
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1952-08-05
Citations: 63 So. 2d 196
Docket Number: 
Parties: KAUFMAN v. KAUFMAN.
Judges: . TERRELL, THOMAS and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 63
Pages: 196–208

Head Matter:
KAUFMAN v. KAUFMAN.
Supreme Court of Florida, en Banc.
Aug. 5, 1952.
On Rehearing Jan. 20, 1953.
Caldwell, Parker, Foster & Wigginton, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Horn & Ossinsky, Charles W. Luther and Walter Shelley, Daytona Beach, for appellee. ■

Opinion:
CHAPMAN, Justice. .
This is an appeal from a final decree awarding separate maintenance unconnected with a divorce entered in the Circuit Court of Volusia County, Florida. The decree fixed Lotty Kaufman's separate maintenance in the sum of $3,900 per an-num and counsel fees for her attorney in the sum of $4,000. The parties lived in Toms River, New Jersey, prior to moving to Daytona Beach, Florida, approximately three years ago and prior to their separation. The husband purchased a duplex apartment at Daytona Beach and occupied the lower apartment as a home and rented the upper one for $60 per month. The apartment was valued at from $20,000 to $22,000. It does not appear in the record the amount appellant paid for the apartment.
On November 10, 1950, when the husband left his wife at Daytona Beach and returned to Toms River, New Jersey, he was approximately 80 years of age and the wife was 60. When the separate maintenance suit was filed in November, 1950, the husband Samuel Kaufman, had a substantial sum of money on deposit with a bank at Daytona .Beach and bonds and other property in a safety deposit box at the same bank. The wife, Lotty Kaufman, had a bank account and a separate safety deposit box at the same bank. An inventory thereof, as made by Judge Frederick, disclosed a savings account appearing in the name of Lotty Kaufman in the sum of $1,352. The wife's safety deposit box contained bonds in the sum of $835, also three diamond rings containing 18 large diamonds and numerous small ones having a total value of between five and six thousand dollars. The modest scale of living on the part of the Kaufmans is characterized as "miserly". During the thirteen years prior to the separation the husband gave his wife a $10 weekly allowance, which she spent for clothes, cosmetics and other personal items.
Honorable Herbert B. Frederick, Circuit Judge, on December 12, 1950, heard the wife's application for support and maintenance and counsel fees, and entered an order requiring Samuel Kaufman to pay * to his wife, Lotty Kaufman; (1) the sum of $30 per week; (2) the sum of $400 as temporary counsel fees; (3) the wife was granted the right to occupy the downstairs apartment as her living quarters free of rent; (4) the costs of maintenance of the property, such as taxes, insurance, water rents, sewer rents and all other necessary alterations and repairs on the apartment house to be paid by the husband; (5) costs of litiga.tion in the sum of $50 was allowed the wife. The order is dated December 12, 1950.
On December 14, 1950, Samuel Kaufman answered the bill of complaint as filed by his wife, Lotty Kaufman. The reason set out in his answer for separating from his wife was that she "constantly nagged and abused him". That she requested him to give "her money to take care of her relatives" and wanted him to convey to her all his property. The defendant is approximately 80 years of age and is subject to heart attacks, and that the nagging and mistreatment on the part of the wife causes the heart attacks to become longer and more violent. The husband specifically denied that it was his intention to withhold from his wife the means of support but had supported her and furnished a home, sent her money and was willing and able to support her according to his station in life. That the wife was never penniless or without the means of support, but she had money on deposit in the bank to check on; government bonds in a safety deposit box at the bank; and additional thereto, at the time of bringing her bill of complaint, owned and possessed rings and diamonds of the value of between $5,000 and $6,000. The answer admitted that the husband owns property and other assets and is financially able .to support his wife, but the total value of his property is not set out in the answer.
On January 20, 1951, Judge Frederick made and entered an order in the cause (Tr. 46-49). The order recites that "Lotty Kaufman was not on the date of filing her bill of complaint, to-wit, November 18, 1950, (as is alleged therein) and is not now without means or funds with which to support herself during the pendency of this suit and that she will not be left penniless as alleged unless the Court retains within its jurisdiction cash funds belonging to the defendant, Samuel Kaufman." "The plaintiff, Lotty Kaufman, had admitted that ¡the defendant (Samuel- Kaufman) and she had refused $22,000 for the premises in which she now resides now within the jurisdiction of this Court." The order dated December 12, 1950, which required the payment of $400 attorneys fees and $50 as costs and expenses was vacated. A check in the sum of $450 payable to counsel for plaintiff-appellee under the order dated December 12, 1950, was duly surrendered "with admission of the impropriety of allowing such fees and costs under the circumstances." -The check was returned to counsel for defendant-appellant.
The order of Judge Frederick dated December 12, 1950, directed Samuel Kaufman to pay Lotty Kaufman the sum of $30 per week and allowed the wife to remain in the downstairs apartment as living quarters. Judge Frederick became ill and another Judge was assigned to Volusia County. On April 21, 1951, a petition was presented for additional support and maintenance on the' theory that Lotty Kaufman Was unable to live on $30 per week, as costs of living had materially increased and the $30 per week allowance was insufficient. The same petition prayed for additional counsel fees. The Court heard the parties and entered an order increasing the temporary support and maintenance from $30 to $40 per week.Other provisions appear in the order but a recital thereof is unnecessary for a disposition of this controversy.
Counsel for Lotty Kaufman filed in the Court below a motion for an order to show cause why Samuel Kaufman should not be held in contempt for the violation of the order requiring him to pay his wife the sum of $40 per week, as Kaufman was in arrears in his payments in the amount of $90. Also, Kaufman had failed to submit himself to discovery proceedings according to stipulations of counsel. On June 21, 1951, (Tr. 74), Samuel Kaufman, through counsel, answered the motion for an order to show cause on discovery proceedings and represented that he was over 80 years of age; that he resided at Toms River, New Jersey; that he was in failing health and did not feel physically able to travel the distance from Toms River, New Jersey, to Daytona Beach, Florida ihcidental to the alleged discovery proceedings, but was willing to answer all questions propounded to him at Toms River, N. J., pertinent to the issues made by the pleadings in the case at bar. Kaufman further set out that he was not in arrears in his alimony payments, but had sent checks each month pursuant to the Court order dated December 13, 1950. That the wife had obtained rents from the tenant in the apartment, which, if correctly credited to the alimony claims, would clear him of being in arrears in alimony payments as charged.
Honorable Don Register was assigned to Volusia County and heard the evidence of the parties on the issues presented and thereafter held: (1) that Samuel Kaufman was in arrears in support and maintenance money in the sum of $130; (2) he allowed Lotty Kaufman's counsel a fee of $75 for services rendered incident to the contempt proceedings; (3) that Kaufman was in contempt because of his failure to appear in Volusia County in connection with the discovery proceedings; (4) he was further ordered to appear in the Circuit Court of Volusia -County, Florida, at 10:00 o'clock A.M., June 28, 1951, for the discovery proceedings, and in default thereof that he pay the estimated costs and expenses of $500 for the appellees counsel in going' to Toms River, N. J., to take the depositions. On June 29, 1951, Honorable Don Register entered a second order in the cause in which he held that Samuel Kaufman was in contempt. Arrears in support and maintenance money, with counsel fees, were assessed and made a lien on the apartment of Samuel Kaufman. The rent on the upstairs apartment in the sum of $60 per month was given to Lotty Kaufman. The estimated costs of her counsel going to Toms River and returning in amount of $500 was entered as a judgment against Kaufman. The Court enjoined Samuel Kaufman from taking any steps in the cause. His answer then in the record was stricken, a decree pro confesso entered against him and the cause ordered to proceed ex parte. The same order provided for the arrest of Kaufman, with directions that he be brought before the Court to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt of Court.
The Chancellor referred the cause to a Special Master, who heard the testimony of Mrs. Matilda Schott, Lotty Kaufman and attorney Gordon F. Mac Calla and thereafter, on July 19, 1951, a final decree was entered for the plaintiff-appellee. It was decreed that Samuel Kaufman should pay to Lotty Kaufman, his wife, the sum of $3,900 per annum as alimony at the rate of $75 per week. An attorney-fee in behalf of the wife's attorney was fixed at the sum of $4,000. Items of cost likewise were assessed against the husband and made, by the terms of the decree, a lien on the apartment owned by Samuel Kaufman. The Court retained jurisdiction to enforce the decree, and further for the punishment of Samuel Kaufman for contempt of Court. Kaufman appealed.
The statute under which the case at bar was brought recognized the right and authority of a husband to fix the standard of living for himself and family. This right and authority exists now in the husband and such prerogative, in the absence of statutory authority, cannot be usurped by the Courts of Florida. Pawley v. Pawley, Fla., 46 So.2d 464. We find but little, if any, conflict in the evidence on the point of the standard of living observed by the parties to this suit from the date of their marriage in 1932 until their separation in November, 1950. They lived in the lower apartment of the Daytona Beach property for approximately three years and rented the upstairs apartment for $65 per month. They lived frugal and thrifty lives, but this standard of living is characterized as "miserly". She testified (Tr. 139) that with the allowance of $10 per month on the part of her husband she "bought all personal things needed by her, including clothes, cosmetics and items of similar nature." The husband supplied her additionally with a home and food, and with this standard of living apparently she was satisfied or contented throughout her married life with the appellant.
The prerogative of a husband to fix or set the standard of living for himself and family, as enunciated in the Pawley case, was clearly in the mind of Judge Frederick when he entered his order dated January 20, 1951. This order held that the wife was not "left penniless" and "not without means or funds." She was then living in the downstairs apartment of their home and was the owner of the following property: $1,350 on savings account; $835 in Government bonds in a safety deposit box; three large dinner rings containing 18 large diamonds and numerous small ones having a value of from $5,000 to $6,000, all of the total approximate value of from $7,000 to $8,000. Judge Frederick denied the wife counsel fees and suit money but required the husband to pay her $30 per week. The second Judge, during Judge Frederick's illness, raised the weekly allowance to $40.
Other jurisdictions construing similar statutes to the one here involved are clearly set out in Schouler's Divorce Manual, pages 387-8, viz.:
"(a) Circumstances considered.— Generally speaking the amount of the alimony will depend upon the circumstances of each case including the age, health and social position of the parties, the financial condition of both, the source and amount of property, the earning capacity and income, the respective fault of the parties as appears by the divorce proceedings and the necessities of the wife and children. ,
"(b) Award not punitive. — The award of alimony should not be punitive. It it not intended to punish the husband for his misconduct. It has been said, however, that the misconduct of the husband may be taken into consideration in fixing the amount. Nevertheless, the main purpose of alimony is support. And the amount to be allowed for that purpose should be just and reasonable so far as it affects both parties.
"(c) Factors considered. — In determining the amount of the wife's support, her social standing and the standard of living to which she has been accustomed may be considered as well as her station and condition in life. The courts', however, cannot enforce this rule where the resources and earning's of the husband are not sufficient for the purpose."
See Hutchinson v. Hutchinson, 102 Fla. 1123, 137 So.2d 5, and similar cases.
The record discloses .that Samuel Kaufman was not in the State of Florida but at Toms River, New Jersey, and had been for several days, when the wife filed her suit in the Circuit Court of Volusia County, Florida, on November 16, 1950. It is true that he obtained counsel and filed an answer to the bill of complaint in the Circuit Court of Volusia County on the 14th day of December, 1950. Kaufman does not appear ever to have been in Florida after his wife instituted her suit for support and maintenance. It is not disputed that he was eighty years of age and subject to heart attacks and represented to the lower Court that he was not physically able to travel from .Toms River, New Jersey, to Daytona Beach, Florida, for the purpose of giving his depositions, but he expressed a willingness so to do, if desired, at Toms River, New Jersey. It was the wife's contention that discovery depositions on the part of the husband were essential in order to make out her case. He further contended that if the rent money collected by his wife on the upstairs apartment had been accurately applied to the support money as allowed by the court, then he would not be in arrears thereon.
(1) The order of the Chancellor adjudging Samuel Kaufman in contempt of court for his failure to pay alimony and counsel fees according to the Court's decree; (2) the order striking from the files the answer of the appellant to the bill of complaint; (3) the entry of a decree pro confesso against Samuel Kaufman; (4) the order requiring the wife to proceed further ex parte in the cause; (5) the imposition of sentence on Samuel Kaufman for contempt; (6) the order commanding the arrest of Samuel Kaufman, were each confirmed, approved and ratified by the final decree appealed from. The Chancellor's ruling, supra, is bottomed on 30 F.S.A. Rule 30(d) of the Common Law Rules of Civil Procedure. It is as follows:
"(d) Failure of Party to Attend or Serve Answers. If a party or an officer or managing agent of a party wil-fully fails to appear before the officer who is fo take his deposition, after being served with a proper notice, or fails to serve answers to interrogatories submitted under Rule 26, after proper service of such interrogatories, the court on motion and notice may strike out all or any part of any pleading of that party, or dismiss the action or proceeding or any part thereof, or enter a judgment by default against that party."
We are unable to agree with the able Chancellor's interpretation of the discovery deposition rule. The wife was asserting her claim for support and maintenance money. The husband was not asserting a claim against his wife but simply filed an answer to her claim. The wife, under such conditions and circumstances, is not entitled, as a matter of right, to an order requiring this appellant to travel from Toms River, New Jersey, to Daytona Beach, Florida, at great expense and inconvenience, in order to give his deposition so that the plaintiff-wife could prepare her case for trial. The Rule, supra, .casts upon the wife in the case at bar the burden of taking the husband's testimony at Toms River, New Jersey. See Rule 30(a) of Civil Procedure; Surrency v. Winn & Lovett Grocery Co., 160 Fla. 294, 34 So.2d 564. It was error to strike from the record the answer of the defendant-appellant and in an ex parte proceeding enter the final decree challenged on this appeal.
The decree appealed from is reversed with directions for further proceedings not inconsistent with the views herein expressed.
. TERRELL, THOMAS and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.
SEBRING, C. J., and TAYLOR, Associate Justice, dissent.
HOBSON, J., not participating.