HOLLI POE DENNIS, FORMER WIFE, APPELLANT,
v.
MICHAEL DENNIS, FORMER HUSBAND, APPELLEE
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The court held that a trial court abused its discretion by failing to make alimony termination retroactive when the recipient spouse's need ceased, absent a basis for denying retroactivity.
Former Wife appealed the termination of alimony, and Former Husband cross-appealed the denial of retroactive termination. Former Wife's need for alimo…
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Former Wife, Holli Poe Dennis, appeals a final order terminating her entitlement to alimony, arguing that the trial court failed to support, its decision with adequate factual findings. We affirm without discussion the termination of the alimony obligation.
Former Husband, Michael Dennis, cross-appeals the. final order,, arguing that the trial court should have retroactively applied the termination of his obligation to pay alimony. A trial court has the discretion to modify alimony effective from the date the petition for modification was filed or any date subsequent to the filing of the petition. Acosta v. Renta, 84 So.3d 1223, 1226 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012). “Retroac-tivity is the rule rather than the exception which guides the trial court’s application of discretion when modification of alimony or child support is granted,” DeSantis v. Smith, 634 So.2d 796, 797 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). “Accordingly, there is a presumption of retroactivity which applies unless there is a basis for determining that the award should not be retroactive.” Thyrre v. Thyrre, 963 So.2d 859, 862 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007).
Here, Former Wife’s need for alimony ceased when she began receiving payments from Former Husband’s military pension. The trial court presented no reason for denying the request for retroactive application, and the record does not provide a basis to support the court’s denial of the request. Thus, the trial court abused its discretion by failing to make the termination of alimony retroactive to the date Former Wife began receiving a portion of Former Husband’s military benefits.
We affirm the trial court’s termination of alimony, but we reverse for the trial court to order the reduction retroactive to the date Former Wife began receiving payments from Former Husband’s pension.
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; and REMANDED.
WOLF, ROWE, and KELSEY, JJ., • CONCUR.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Murphy v. Suarez (Fla. 4th DCA 2023)…n by not making alimony modification retroactive to the date of filing of the original modification action because record did not support rejection of payor spouse’s request for retroactive application of the alimony modification); Dennis v. Dennis, 223 So. 3d 480, 481 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017) (trial court abused its discretion by failing to make alimony termination retroactive to date former wife’s alimony need ceased, where no reason for denying former husband’s request for retroactive application of the termi…
Authorities Cited
- Thyrre v. Thyrre, 963 So. 2d 859 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007)
- Patterer v. Builders Supply House, Inc., 634 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994)
- Desantis v. Smith, 634 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)
- Acosta v. Renta, 84 So. 3d 1223 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012)