BART A. HOUSTON, APPELLANT,
v.
MICHAEL MCKNOUGHT-SMITH, BARBARA MCKNOUGHT-SMITH, AND ROBERT J. MORAITIS, P.A., APPELLEES
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The court held that the trial court erred in ordering one attorney to pay fees to another without a finding of bad faith.
A former wife's attorney was ordered to pay attorney's fees to the former husband's previous attorney for failing to remove the husband's attorney fro…
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We reverse the order of the trial court ordering the former wife’s attorney to pay attorney’s fees'to the former husband’s previous attorney. The husband’s previous attorney claimed that the wife’s attorney had failed to remove him from the service list, requiring him to take action to compel his removal. Thus, the previous attorney claimed that he had to file a motion requesting that the wife’s attorney be ordered not to serve him, and requesting attorney’s fees.1 In granting the motion and ordering the payment of fees at a non-evidentiary hearing, the court failed to make the necessary finding that the wife’s attorney acted in bad faith in serving the husband’s previous attorney. See Moakley v. Smallwood, 826 So.2d 221, 227 (Fla.2002).2 We thus reverse the order requiring the payment of the fee.
WARNER, STEVENSON and FORST, JJ., concur.