Case Name: Loys LEFKOVITZ et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. Louis LEFKOVITZ, Appellee (Defendant)
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1976-12-30
Citations: 341 So. 2d 253
Docket Number: No. AA-86
Parties: Loys LEFKOVITZ et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. Louis LEFKOVITZ, Appellee (Defendant).
Judges: DRURY, ARVEL, Associate Judge, concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 341
Pages: 253–257

Head Matter:
Loys LEFKOVITZ et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. Louis LEFKOVITZ, Appellee (Defendant).
No. AA-86.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Dec. 30, 1976.
Donald F. Leggett, of Black & Leggett, P. A., Jacksonville, for appellants.
Gerald R. Power, Jacksonville, for appel-lee.

Opinion:
MILLS, Judge.
Ms. Lefkovitz, her daughter and attorney filed this action against Mr. Lefkovitz, her former husband, to establish in Florida an Illinois judgment obtained in a proceeding ancillary to an Illinois divorce. The judgment was for arrearages in alimony, child support and attorneys' fees. Mr. Lefkovitz contended, and the trial court agreed, that the Illinois divorce decree was ineffective, for lack of personal jurisdiction over him, to require that he pay alimony, child support and attorneys' fees. We agree.
The question which is determinative of this appeal is whether the Illinois divorce court had personal jurisdiction of Mr. Lef-kovitz, notwithstanding his absence from that state, by process served pursuant to the Illinois long arm statute, which provides:
"(1) Any person, whether or not a citizen or resident of this State, who in person . does any of the acts hereinafter enumerated, thereby submits to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State as to any cause of action arising from the doing of any such acts:
"(e) With respect to actions of divorce and separate maintenance, the maintenance in this State of a matrimonial domicile at the time the cause of action arose or the commission in this State of any act giving rise to the cause of action."
There is substantial competent evidence to support the court's findings that Mr. Lefkovitz left Illinois in November 1971 and established a business and residence in Florida; although he occasionally returned to Illinois to visit with his family, he remained a resident of Florida; he last visited with the family the first part of November 1973 and at this time decided to never return; the act giving rise to Ms. Lefkovitz's divorce action, filed in Illinois in December 1973, occurred in Florida the latter part of November 1973; and Mr. Lefkovitz was served with process in Florida under the Illinois long arm statute.
From these facts, the trial court properly determined that the Illinois trial court did not acquire personal jurisdiction of Mr. Lef-kovitz because the act giving rise to the Illinois divorce action occurred in Florida and at that time there was no marital domicile in Illinois.
The judgment is affirmed.
DRURY, ARVEL, Associate Judge, concurs.
SMITH, J., dissents.
. Smith-Hurd Ann., Ch. 110, § 17.