Case Name: Montgomery Blair SIBLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara SIBLEY, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2002-12-23
Citations: 833 So. 2d 847
Docket Number: No. 3D02-3171
Parties: Montgomery Blair SIBLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara SIBLEY, Appellee.
Judges: Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and COPE and GODERICH, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 833
Pages: 847–853

Head Matter:
Montgomery Blair SIBLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara SIBLEY, Appellee.
No. 3D02-3171.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Dec. 23, 2002.
Billbrough & Marks and G. Bart Billb-rough, for appellant.
Jay M. Levy; Bette E. Quiat, Miami, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and COPE and GODERICH, JJ.

Opinion:
SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge.
The primary point of the appellant, who is incarcerated for indirect contempt because he failed to discharge an obligation for a large amount of admittedly past due child support — of which he has paid not a single cent — is that the record does not support the express finding below that he has the present ability to pay the purge amount of $100,000.00. We disagree.
We do so because, as the record demonstrates Sibley may command, simply by asking, the payment of the purge amount through his very wealthy father —who has in effect given many hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Sibley for any and every purpose except the discharge of this particular obligation. Among these are the payment of $250,000.00 cash for a business which nominally supports him, $200,000.00 in the "forgiveness" of a "loan" from the father, and large sums directly for the support of the appellant's present wife and his other child. We are convinced that they include also very substantial sums in legal fees and costs in order to avoid payment, as well as the maintenance of the present expensive proceeding to secure his release from prison without having to meet his adjudicated duty to support these children, even in the smallest part. His failure to do so stems, as the record again shows, and as the trial judge observed, only from a stubborn, self-immolating hatred of and vendetta against his ex-wife, who also happens to be the mother of their children, and not from any "inability to pay." In these circumstances, which demonstrate the very epitome of a wilful, contemptuous refusal to obey a binding order of court, the rule that all sums from whatever source available to the contemnor-obligor must be considered to determine his "ability to pay" is peculiarly relevant. Koll v. Koll, 812 So.2d 529 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002); Mallardi v. Jenne, 721 So.2d 380 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Pompey v. Cochran, 685 So.2d 1007 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997); Rose v. Ford, 831 So.2d 763,(Fla. 4th DCA 2002)(dictum); see also Klein v. Klein, 122 So.2d 205 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960); Silvers v. Silvers, 274 So.2d 555 (Fla. 3d DCA 1973); Silberman v. Silberman, 670 So.2d 1109 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996). Its application compels the rejection of the appellant's argument that, on the merits, he should not be in jail for civil contempt. In our judgment, he is in the right place for the right reason.
Affirmed.
GODERICH, J., concurs.
. The presence of such a finding is indispensable to the validity of the order. See Bowen v. Bowen, 471 So.2d 1274 (Fla.1985).
., Notwithstanding that the appellant has adamantly refused to reveal many of his financial records — which in itself raises a strong presumption against him, City of Miami v. Rantanen, 645 So.2d 4 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994)—the record shows substantial assets, although admittedly not in the purge amount, in his own name.
. The senior Sibley purchased a three-bedroom, three-stoiy town home in Maryland in which the son, his new wife, and child lived and where he now lives alone. Although there is no record either that such a payment was ever made or what the source of such a payment may have been, see supra note 2, the rent supposedly due the father is $2500.00 per month.
. The following is only a partial recounting of the litigation he has unsuccessfully generated to achieve that end:
Sibley v. Sibley, 823 So.2d 785 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 816 So.2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002); Sibley v. Sibley, 815 So.2d 673 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002), review denied, No. SC02-1309, 833 So.2d 774 (Fla. Nov.22, 2002)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 814 So.2d 1054 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 793 So.2d 959 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 803 So.2d 738 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 795 So.2d 71 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 791 So.2d 481 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 771 So.2d 1175 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 751 So.2d 586 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 733 So.2d 529 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 732 So.2d 1079 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999)(table); Sibley v. Sibley, 725 So.2d 1273 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Sibley v. Sibley, 710 So.2d 1017 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998); Sibley v. Sibley, 34 Fed.Appx. 969 (11th Cir.2002)(table).
.In the light of this conclusion, we consider that the appellant's other point, which claims defects in the orders below, see Fla.Fam. L.R.P. 12.615 (2002), does not present harmful error.
Gonzalez v. Gonzalez, 834 So.2d 291 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002); Broadfoot v. Broadfoot, 791 So.2d 584 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001).