TIMOTHY PALLAI, APPELLANT,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE O/B/O KAREN R. TIPTON, APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court reversed denial of petition to vacate a 1992 paternity judgment, holding that the trial court erred by failing to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the merits of the void judgment claim.
A trial court must conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether a paternity judgment is void rather than deciding the matter solely on written memoranda.
[1] A trial court must conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine the merits of a petition to vacate a judgment alleged to be void, rather than deciding the matter solely on…
Previewing 1 of 1 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Although rule 1.540(b) imposes a one-year limitations period for filing certain motions to vacate, parties seeking relief from a judgment that is void are subject only to a 'reasonable time' requirement.”
Court explaining that void judgments are not subject to the standard one-year limitations period under Rule 1.540(b).
Timothy Pallai filed a petition to vacate a Florida Judgment of Paternity/Order On Temporary Support entered on February 27, 1992, asserting the judgm…
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SALCINES, Judge.
Timothy Pallai appeals an order denying his petition to vacate a Florida “Judgment of Paternity/Order On Temporary Support.” We reverse.
In his petition to vacate, Mr. Pallai asserted that the Florida judgment entered on February 27, 1992, was void. See Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.540(b); M.L. Builders, Inc. v. Reserve Developers, LLP, 769 So. 2d 1079, 1081 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (“Although rule 1.540(b) imposes a one-year limitations period for filing certain motions to vacate, parties seeking relief from a judgment that is void are subject only to a ‘reasonable time’ requirement.”). A hearing on Mr. Pallai’s petition to vacate was conducted, but no evidence was presented. Instead, the parties were directed to file memoranda of law. Thereafter, the trial court entered the order denying relief to Mr. Pal-lai.
The trial court should have conducted an evidentiary hearing to consider the merits of the petition. We reverse the order denying Mr. Pallai’s petition and remand this matter to the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine the issues of jurisdiction, personal service upon Mr. Pallai, and the amount of credit to which Mr. Pallai is entitled for payments made against any arrearages which may exist. Further, we remand for a complete review of all additional issues raised in Mr. Pallai’s motion for rehearing.
Reversed and remanded.
DAVIS and WALLACE, JJ„ Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Johnson v. State, 973 So. 2d 1236 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008)…ns which “if proven, would establish that the judgment is void,” the trial court must conduct an evidentiary hearing. Leipuner v. Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp., 860 So. 2d 1027, 1028 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003); see also Pallai v. Dep’t of Revenue ex rel. Tipton, 955 So. 2d 1205, 1206 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007) (reversing trial court’s order denying a motion to vacate a 1992 paternity judgment alleged to be void and remanding the matter to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on, among other things, issues of personal service…
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Hemant N. Shah and Mayur J. Mehta v. Regions Bank, 255 So. 3d 951 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018)
Authorities Cited
- Dorsey v. State, 769 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)