HERMINE LYNDA ALATI, APPELLANT,
v.
VINCENT JOSEPH ALATI, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that the trial court erred in dismissing the claim for child support arrearages, as the property settlement agreement and the final judgment preserved the appellant's right to claim them.
[1] A property settlement agreement provision stating that none of its provisions shall merge into the final judgment of dissolution preserves a party's right to claim child…
[2] A reservation of jurisdiction in a final judgment of dissolution is sufficient to preserve a party's right to claim prejudgment child support arrearages.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant appealed the dismissal of her claim for child support arrearages that accrued before the final judgment of dissolution. The parties' propert…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Merger Doctrine cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM.
Hermine Alati appeals from an order that dismissed her claim against appellee for child support arrearages. The arrear-ages accumulated before the court entered the final judgment of dissolution. Appellant contends the trial court erred when it determined that her claim for arrearages had merged into the final judgment and was therefore barred. We agree with appellant and reverse.
The trial court incorporated the parties’ property settlement agreement into the final judgment. The property settlement agreement provided for child support. Moreover, the parties agreed therein that: “None of the provisions of this agreement shall merge into such judgment or decree.”
We note that three judges presided at various stages in this dissolution action. Judge Wessel, however, was the judge who presided at the final hearing of dissolution. He made it clear at that time that he did not intend the final judgment to bar appellant’s claim for child support arrearages. He stated:
As far as the arrearage is concerned, because I’ve adopted the agreement— that’s without prejudice to her to come after him for the arrearages.
The final judgment also contained a reservation of jurisdiction:
Except as to the dissolution granted in this Judgment, this Court specifically reserves jurisdiction of this entire matter to enter such further Orders as may be deemed equitable, appropriate and just.
As a result, we find no merit in appel-lee’s argument that the trial court lost jurisdiction to consider appellant’s motion to enforce her claim for the child support ar-rearages. We hold that the property settlement agreement terms and the reservation of jurisdiction in the final judgment were sufficient to preserve appellant’s right to claim prejudgment child support arrearages.
Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s order of dismissal of appellant’s second amended motion for contempt and remand this cause to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
GLICKSTEIN, C.J., and ANSTEAD and DELL, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
In re Est. OF Robert C. Tensfeldt v. Tensfeldt, 839 So. 2d 720 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003)…that merger did not apply when parties were not the same). Second, the divorce agreement specifically stated the parties’ intent that the contract would not merge into the final judgment, but would survive any judgment or decree. See Alati v. Alati 591 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992) (holding similar language in settlement agreement prevented merger and therefore action for support pursuant to agreement was not barred). The divorce decree in Wisconsin may give greater recognition to the rights the children re…