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523 So. 2d 178

523 So.2d 178

13 Fla.L.Weekly 868

Shoemaker v. Shoemaker

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1988-04-05

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently September 1992

11 state decisions

Relies on Rideout v. United States · 379 So. 2d 352 - Raisen v. Raisen · 475 So. 2d 1211 - Snowten v. US Fidelity and Guar. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1988-04-05

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PER CURIAM.

¶1As the result of a slip and fall accident in defendant-appellee’s home, plaintiff-appellant brought a negligence action. After suit was filed, the parties were married. The trial judge granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case with prejudice, thus barring plaintiff’s right to ever bring an action on the same claim.

¶2We affirm the dismissal based as it was on the doctrine of interspousal immunity. Snowten v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 475 So.2d 1211 (Fla.1985); Raisen v. Raisen, 379 So.2d 352 (Fla.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 886, 101 S.Ct. 240, 66 L.Ed.2d 111 (1980). However, we hold that the dismissal should have been without prejudice. The cases of Gaston v. Pittman, 224 So.2d 326 (Fla.1969) and Chatmon v. Woodard, 492 So.2d 1115 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986) control here. As this court held in Chatmon, “[A]bate[ment] of the cause of action pending the possible termination of the marriage of the parties by dissolution or death” is the proper disposition of a case such as this where the cause of action accrued before marriage. Chatmon, 492 So.2d at 1116.

¶3Affirmed and remanded with directions to enter an order of dismissal without prejudice.

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