Resources

Request a Quote

Join Our Newsletter

Form Heading

Shinitzky v. Shinitzky, 8/17/11
April 20, 2017

Appellant former husband, on remand, moved the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, (Florida), to determine the amount of funds due to the husband with interest and to require transfer of accounts to the husband in accordance with the final judgment of dissolution of marriage. The successor judge ruled that the husband was not entitled to interest on non-disbursed funds. The husband appealed. The husband argued that the trial court deviated from the final judgment, and thus erred by failing to comply with the appellate court’s mandate. On appeal, the court found that, the trial court, on remand, was to simply enforce the final judgment and, in its attempts to do so, it misinterpreted what the appellate court intended. The appellate court reviewed and affirmed the pre-final judgment valuation which required the wife to pay an equalizing amount to the husband, plus interest for the years she delayed disbursement. The terms of the final judgment regarding the investment funds were misunderstood and counsel and experts misled the trial court as to the valuation of the funds. A hearing on remand was a general airing of the views of the counsel, experts, and even the husband as to how the investment funds were to be valued, rather than an adherence to the terms of the final judgment and enforcement order. The successor judge modified the terms of the final judgment and enforcement order as to the investment funds at issue, which the appellate court previously had affirmed. Thus, the trial court failed to comply with the appellate court’s mandate. The trial court’s order was reversed, and the case was remanded with instructions for the court to effectuate the original judge’s final judgment and enforcement order regarding disbursement of the investment funds and equalizing payment to the husband precisely as written and affirmed by the appellate court. The equalizing payment was to include interest from the date it was initially due.